Moderna Stock (NASDAQ:MRNA)
Monday morning, shares of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) were up after TD Cowen upgraded the COVID-19 vaccine producer from Market Perform to Outperform. The firm cited a robust catalyst setup ahead as the reason for the upgrade.
Even though the pandemic is ending, analyst Tyler Van Buren believes that the expectations for Moderna in 2023 “are reasonable.” He also predicts that sales of the COVID vaccine could reach $7 billion to $8 billion this year, significantly higher than the company’s $5 billion outlook.
Buren said, “Given Moderna’s success with its COVID-19 vaccines, we feel that the company may be successful in creating effective vaccines for multiple additional illnesses.”
He believes that Moderna stock has the potential to become a market leader in the respiratory syncytial virus vaccination industry (RSV). It is anticipated that Pfizer (PFE) and GlaxoSmithKline will assume the near-term lead in the RSV arena, with decisions from the FDA on their respective vaccine candidates likely in May.
Buren contends that “inferiority on flu B does not indicate that it lacks any protection,” despite low expectations for the influenza vaccine candidate mRNA-1010 developed by Moderna (MRNA). The analyst has high expectations that the readout of the vaccine effectiveness data on the influenza B strain, scheduled to occur before the end of the month, would be “excellent.”
The analyst also anticipates positive findings for Moderna’s personalized cancer vaccine developed in collaboration with Merck before a possible readout at medical meetings hosted by AACR and/or ASCO.
In addition, Buren believes that despite more significant operating expenditures, Moderna will not be required to seek more capital. Thus he has increased his price objective for the Moderna stock to $180, up from $150.
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Author Shariq Khan 
