Though several questions regarding his business practices, unrelated to his vaccine candidate’s progress, have recently come up (including how executives are possibly profiting from the surge in shares and a failed attempt to invalidate another company’s patent. ), which worries JP Morgan analyst Cory Kasimov at this point, is his rapid accumulation of stock gains.
“A bigger picture,” said the 5-star analyst, “We remain constructive across the company overall (COVID-19 or otherwise) but currently feel more comfortable on the sidelines given MRNA’s $ 30B + valuation.” .
That valuation has increased dramatically since the turn of the year (up to 306%) as investors applauded every step in the progress of the candidate for the biotech vaccine COVID-19 mRNA-1273. The latest Moderna surge came earlier this week, after data published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that in a preclinical study evaluating mRNA-1273 in non-human primates, the vaccine elicited strong antibody responses and T cells.
With a Phase 3 study of mRNA-1273 started earlier this week, and hoping that management will be able to present data on Thanksgiving, the positive results of the preclinical study are a good addition to the candidate’s progress. However, Kasimov wonders how much influence the data will have in the long term.
Kasimov said: “We see the release of Moderna’s data on non-human primates (NHP) in support of the potential for mRNA-1273 (COVID-19 vaccine), adding to the other encouraging evidence of early evidence, including those Phase 1 results. That said, how the results in monkeys eventually translate into humans and whether the lack of an apparent CD8 T-cell response is relevant (especially when other vaccine candidates have demonstrated T-cell involvement. CD8) are two (of many admitted) pending questions “.
Overall, there is still a lot of support for Moderna among Kasimov’s colleagues. MRNA’s Strong Buy consensus rating is based on 13 purchases and 3 holds. Over the next 12 months, the street is accounting for a 17% gain for the stock, keeping in mind that the average price target reaches $ 90.67. (See Moderna stock analysis at TipRanks)
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