Moderna Shares Rise as Morgan Stanley Boosts Price Target

Morgan Stanley has increased its price target on Moderna by 77% this week. Shares of the company have been soaring as a result.

Analyst Matthew Harrison however still won’t recommend buying Moderna shares, and cut his ratings on Dow components Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Amgen

The stock has rallied 17.7% over the past five days, but remains 9.9% below its Aug. 9 record close of $484.47.

Harrison raised his price target to $337 from $190 and raised is COVID-19 sales estimate for 2021 to $20.25 billion from $19.13 billion and his outlook for 2022 sales to $30.38 billion from $13.50 billion. The new estimates account for greater vaccine usage, including a third booster shot as part of the primary series.

“We continue to see COVID-19 revenues declining over time, but we do not see that starting to happen until 2023/2024 versus our prior estimate of 2022,” Harrison wrote in a note to clients. “We have also added in the potential for a combination COVID/respiratory vaccine.”

The analyst reiterated an equal weight rating on the stock, as his price target is about 23% below current levels. “While we believe there is long-term upside for Moderna, we believe the significant valuation increase associated with the success of the COVID-19 vaccine limits the near-term upside,” Harrison wrote.

The stock has jumped over 700% over the past 12 months.

Shares may have also been rising this week on news that the company’s new vaccine, which the company is calling mRNA-1073, combines its current Covid vaccine with a flu shot that’s also under development.

“Today we are announcing the first step in our novel respiratory vaccine program with the development of a single dose vaccine that combines a booster against COVID-19 and a booster against flu,” CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement Thursday.

“We are making progress on enrolling patients in our rare disease programs, and we are fully enrolled in our personalized cancer vaccine trial. We believe this is just the beginning of a new age of information-based medicines.”

Bancel is hoping for Moderna to have a booster shot that would combine protection against both viruses.

“What we’re trying to do at Moderna actually is to get a flu vaccine in the clinic this year and then combine our flu vaccine to our Covid vaccine so you only have to get one boost at your local CVS store … every year that would protect you to the variant of concern against Covid and the seasonal flu strain,” Bancel said in April.