Shares of Moderna Inc. (MRNA) spiked 4% to close at $186.02 on May 3 after the company revealed that Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has agreed to supply up to 500 million doses of its COVID-19 Vaccine. Notably, this includes an initial 34 million vaccine doses to be supplied in the fourth quarter of this year.
Per the terms of the deal, on behalf of the COVAX Facility, Gavi has the option to procure 466 million additional doses in 2022. The agreement covers the 92 Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) low-and middle-income countries. Furthermore, Moderna has committed to offer all doses at its lowest tiered price.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said, “We recognize that many countries have limited resources to access COVID-19 vaccines. We support COVAX’s mission to ensure broad, affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and we remain committed to doing everything that we can to ending this ongoing pandemic with our mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.”
Last week, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine was issued Emergency Use Listing (EUL) by the World Health Organization (WHO). The company designed the vaccine to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 18 years of age and older.
The WHO’s decision followed the scientific evidence shared by the company including data released from the pivotal Phase 3 clinical study announced on Nov. 30, 2020. (See Moderna stock analysis on TipRanks)
On April 29, Piper Sandler analyst Edward Tenthoff reiterated a Buy rating and a price target of $234 (25.6% upside potential) on the stock following the company’s revised COVID-19 vaccine guidance of 800 million-1 billion doses in 2021 and 3 billion in 2022.
Tenthoff foresees Moderna recording revenues from complete vaccination in the US, globally, and US boosters. Furthermore, the analyst believes that the company is progressing with a “rich” pipeline of mRNA medicines.
The rest of the Street is cautiously optimistic about the stock with a Moderate Buy consensus rating. That’s based on 5 Buys, 4 Holds, and 2 Sells. The average analyst price target of $167.60 implies 9.9% downside potential to current levels. Shares have increased 66.5% so far this year.
TipRanks data shows that financial blogger opinions are 83% Bullish on MRNA, compared to a sector average of 70%.
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