Moderna vaccine stock added to the Nasdaq 100!

July 15, 2020 14:00

Shares in coronavirus vaccine leader Moderna ( MRNA) have surged higher on the news that the company will be added to the Nasdaq 100 index this month. At one point its share price was up as much as 19% to $74.45, helped by a bullish analyst upgrade from investment bank Jefferies.

According to a press release from Nasdaq, Moderna will replace CoStar Group which will leave the coveted Nasdaq 100 index due to a reclassification based on the Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB) which is the globalised standard for the categorisation and comparison of companies by sector and industry.

Jefferies also announced a 'buy' rating on the stock with a $90 price target which represents more than 45% upside from the stock closed last Friday. Michael Yee, Jefferies' equity analyst wrote in a note to clients: "We think there is a good probability Moderna's vaccine will work and get at least emergency use authorization in 2021" and that, "we think a viable vaccine can generate billions in sales, which we see as reasonable given there would be high demand over the first 1-2 years."

While there are many different pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies in the race to find a coronavirus vaccine, Moderna announced positive results from its early-stage human trials. The company said the potential vaccine for Covid-19 produced a "robust" immune response in all of its 45 patients tested.

Global stock indices and risk assets have also been lifted on the back of this optimism. Below is the long-term, weekly price chart of Moderna's share price, available via Admiral Markets on the MetaTrader 5 trading platform.

Source: Admiral Markets MetaTrader 5, #MRNA, Weekly - Data range: from 2 December 2018 to 15 July 2020. Please note: Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Five-year data is not available for Moderna's share price as the stock only became public in 2018, the beginning of the chart above.

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