Moderna (MRNA) has now priced an underwritten public offering of 17,600,000 shares at a public offering price of $76 per share, before underwriting discounts and commissions.
In addition, MRNA has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,640,000 shares of common stock at the public offering price.
Gross proceeds from the offering will be approximately $1.34 billion, says Moderna.
The offering is expected to close on or about May 21, 2020, subject to customary closing conditions.
Shares in Moderna pulled back 3% in Monday’s after-hours trading, following a 20% rally during the day after the biotech reported “positive” interim clinical data for its experimental coronavirus vaccine.
“The interim Phase 1 data, while early, demonstrates that vaccination with mRNA-1273 elicits an immune response of the magnitude caused by natural infection,” said Tal Zaks, Chief Medical Officer at Moderna.
“When combined with the success in preventing viral replication in the lungs of a pre-clinical challenge model at a dose that elicited similar levels of neutralizing antibodies, these data substantiate our belief that mRNA-1273 has the potential to prevent Covid-19 disease and advance our ability to select a dose for pivotal trials.”
Shares in Moderna have now exploded over 300% on a year-to-date basis- and as a result, the $76 average analyst price target now indicates 5% downside potential from current levels. (See Moderna stock analysis on TipRanks).
However the stock still shows a bullish Strong Buy consensus from the Street, with six analysts reiterating their buy ratings on Monday. That includes Needham’s Alan Carr who ramped up his price target all the way from $58 to $94.
“Based on these data, we believe the vaccine is likely to be found effective for prevention of infection in a Phase 3 trial” he explained. Carr believes a Phase 3 interim analysis by the end of 2020 appears feasible, which he says could be sufficient for FDA Emergency Use Authorization.
“Given collaboration with Lonza, we expect Moderna to have meaningful supply by 4Q20. We have therefore added an mRNA-1273 revenue stream to our model and are raising our price target to $94” the analyst writes.
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