Shares of Moderna, Inc. (MRNA) declined 9% to close at $302.42 on Wednesday after Swedish and Danish health officials announced that they would stop the use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for all young adults and children. The stock fell further in the pre-market session on Thursday as Finland also looks likely to pause the use of the vaccine for men born after 1991, following reports that highlighted a rare cardiovascular side effect, Reuters reported.
The director of the Finnish health institute, Mika Salminen, said, “A Nordic study involving Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark found that men under the age of 30 who received Moderna Spikevax had a slightly higher risk than others of developing myocarditis.”
Consequently, Finland would prefer to give the Pfizer vaccine to boys and young men as a precautionary measure.
As per a Moderna spokesperson, the company was aware of the Swedish and Danish regulators’ decisions. He said, “These are typically mild cases and individuals tend to recover within a short time following standard treatment and rest. The risk of myocarditis is substantially increased for those who contract COVID-19, and vaccination is the best way to protect against this.”
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According to Reuters, regulators in the United States, E.U., and the World Health Organization believe that the benefits of getting the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine continue to outweigh the risks.
Recently, the biotechnology company received the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) approval for a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine, Spikevax. The dose is authorized to be given after a minimum of 28 days of the second dose to severely immunocompromised individuals of 12 years or older. (See Moderna stock charts on TipRanks)
Recently, Brookline Capital Markets analyst Leah R. Cann reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a price target of $468 (54.8% upside potential).
Cann said, “For a company at Moderna’s stage of development, which is largely pre-approval, we primarily focus on potential future revenue to value the company. Based on our expectation that in addition to its already launched COVID-19 vaccine, Moderna will launch several of its development-stage products in the next six years, we estimate that Moderna’s total revenue will increase to $450.5 billion in 2030.”
Overall, the stock has a Hold consensus rating based on 7 Holds, 3 Buys, and 2 Sells. The average Moderna price target of $363.13 implies 20.1% upside potential to current levels.
According to TipRanks’ Smart Score system, Moderna gets a 7 out of 10, which indicates that the stock is likely to perform in line with market averages.
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