Moderna raised to Buy at UBS on underappreciated pipeline
Maddie Meyer

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) shares traded ~3% higher pre-market Monday after UBS upgraded the vaccine maker to Buy from Neutral, arguing that investors have yet to fully appreciate its pipeline beyond COVID. However, UBS lowered the price target on MRNA to $191 from $221 after reviewing estimates for the companyâs pipeline.

Noting that the company has lost ~35% YTD and ~75% from its pandemic-era highs, the analyst Eliana Merle argues that the stock has "begun to reflect significant risk to COVID vaccine revenues, but not the pipeline beyond COVID."
As for the selloff, the analyst points to the uncertainty in the commercial market for COVID shots and argues that doubts about Modernaâs (MRNA) 2023 revenue have been among the major investor worries and headwinds.
However, Merle sees clarity in the companyâs efforts to develop next-generation messenger-RNA-based shots beyond COVID, specifically vaccines targeting flu viruses, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and cytomegalovirus.

More on Moderna

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Moderna: Likely To Drop Further (Technical Analysis)