UBS upgrades Moderna, says potential from new vaccines is underappreciated
Investors aren't fully appreciating the broader uses for Moderna's mRNA vaccines, creating a big buying opportunity, UBS said Monday. The bank upgraded Moderna to buy from neutral. UBS did lower its price target to $191 from $221, though the new forecast implies upside of 61% from Friday's close. Moderna shares have struggled in 2023, losing more than 34%. MRNA YTD mountain Moderna stock has declined nearly 35% so far this year. UBs analyst Eliana Merle noted that while the future of the Covid-19 market is uncertain — which is thus putting a question mark on 2023 revenues — the stock's decline could present a buying opportunity as it only factors in the downside risk from coronavirus vaccines without the potential upside from other products. Merle pointed toward vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus, the flu and cytomegalovirus as promising upside drivers for the company. "We think MRNA's CMV vaccine could be a major potential upside driver over the next 1-2 years, with limited priced in (leading cause of birth defects, no approved vaccines)," Merle said. "We think latent viruses could be a large [opportunity] for mRNA (high public health needs, lack of successful vaccines) and success in CMV would have reads to other programs (e.g. EBV)." — CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.