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Moderna Hosts Virtual Vaccines Day; Four Analysts Reiterate Bullish Calls

Moderna Inc (MRNA) has hosted a virtual Vaccines Day- following which four analysts reiterated their buy ratings on the stock. Roth Capital’s Yasmeen Rahimi also boosted her MRNA price target from $33 to $41. This wave of bullish sentiment sent shares soaring over 7% in Wednesday’s trading.

At the event company management and infectious disease key opinion leaders discussed scientific, regulatory, and commercial considerations with respect to Moderna’s vaccine programs and the vaccine space more broadly.

“Not surprisingly, SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the Covid-19 outbreak featured prominently, with discussions of the virus itself, Moderna’s clinical plan (now enrolling the highest [250 µg] dose cohort in the phase I trial, and an amendment to add elderly participants), and manufacturing scale-up” wrote Chardan analyst Geula Livshits following the event.

Livshits, who has a buy rating and $40 price target on MRNA, anticipates initial phase I immunogenicity data in the summer, aiming for a rapid move into phase II, with phase IIb/III studies coming in the fall after a dose has been selected.

Moderna also announced interim data from the phase I trial of its 2nd generation Zika vaccine (mRNA-1893), demonstrating neutralizing antibody titers and efficient seroconversion with 10 and 30 µg doses.

Finally, presentations from multiple key opinion leaders highlighted both the unmet needs and the economic opportunity for vaccines that prevent respiratory infections as well as transmission of Zika and cytomegalovirus from the mother to the fetus.

So far year-to-date the stock has rallied by over 90%, and analysts continue to believe that MRNA makes a compelling investment. Indeed, TipRanks shows that the stock holds a Strong Buy analyst consensus with eight buy ratings in the last three months vs only one hold rating. (See Moderna’s stock analysis on TipRanks)

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Harriet Lefton
Harriet Lefton, originally from the UK, began her career as a journalist specialising in the niche world of metal markets. She graduated from the University of Cambridge before becoming a qualified UK lawyer. Now she has turned her attention to the world of financial blogging, covering US stocks, analysts and all manner of things finance-related.

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