Moderna Analysts Plan Reckoning After Valuation Declines

(Bloomberg) -- Moderna Inc.’s shares have lost more than a third of their value since a lofty IPO pricetag left some analysts bewildered. This week, Wall Street will look at prospects for the company’s potential new class of medicines to assess its new valuation.

An analyst quiet period that expires on Wednesday applies to perhaps the most friendly analysts on the Street: those working at the banks that underwrote Moderna’s initial public offering. Initiations are likely to be published by firms including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Barclays, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Piper Jaffray, Oppenheimer and Needham.

Among six IPOs by drugmakers that raised at least $100 million this year, Moderna is the only one trading below its offering price, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. After pricing at $23 a share on December 6, the stock fell as low as $13.03 on December 26. Moderna rose 4.2 percent in early trading Monday to $14.75, still down about 36 percent since its IPO.

As reflected in its ticker MRNA, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech company is developing 21 different vaccines and therapies based on messenger RNA technology, which it calls the “software of life.” Moderna’s most advanced program is a partnership with AstraZeneca Plc that’s called AZD8601, currently the subject of a mid-stage study to treat ischemic heart disease.

To contact the reporters on this story: Drew Singer in New York at dsinger28@bloomberg.net;Jeremy R. Cooke in Mount Pleasant, S.C. at jcooke8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, ;Courtney Dentch at cdentch1@bloomberg.net, Scott Schnipper

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