By Senad Karaahmetovic
Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) shares are trading almost 3% higher in pre-market Monday after Jefferies analysts upgraded to Buy from Hold.
The analysts also raised the price target to $275 per share (from $170), suggesting an upside of more than 40% from Friday's closing price.
For them, the COVID-19 vaccine story is “old news” with most investors not caring too much about it at this point. The analysts shared 4 reasons why they believe Moderna stock will trade higher in 2023.
- The new PCV cancer story is the "new shiny thing";
- Predict Phase III RSV vaccine will be positive;
- Predict “good” efficacy/tolerability for “combo” vaccines (data coming in 2023);
- Orphan disease franchise data coming later 2023;
“We see stock rebounding back up in 2023, a return of pipeline opportunities and a "story stock" as generalist and HC interest revisits the stock,” the analysts added in an upgrade note.
Moderna stock price is down almost 24% year-to-date (YTD).