Moderna stock rocketed to another record high on Friday on news it will join the S&P 500 on Wednesday, replacing soon-to-be-acquired Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN).
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The swap will occur when AstraZeneca (AZN) finishes acquiring Alexion. AstraZeneca nabbed the final approval for its Alexion buyout earlier this week with clearance from the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority.
On today’s stock market, Moderna (MRNA) shares bolted 10.3% to 286.43 in hefty volume. Moderna stock has closed at a record high four times this week.
News of its addition to the S&P 500 is another feather in Moderna’s cap.
Moderna Stock: No Products A Year Ago
A year ago, Moderna didn’t have a commercial product. It was mired in years of losses and Moderna stock traded at less than a third of what it does today.
Today, Moderna is the second-biggest biotech company in terms of market cap. Moderna’s market cap topped $100 billion for the first time this week, and now trails only Amgen (AMGN).
Now, Moderna stock analysts expect the company to report growing profits and sales through the rest of this year. Both metrics are expected to start falling off beginning in the first quarter of 2022, likely due to lowered expectations for Covid shots.
Like its competitors Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) — which partner on a Covid shot — Moderna is working on ways of boosting its Covid vaccine, targeting variants and combining vaccines. It also has a pipeline of other vaccine candidates, including a late-stage shot for cytomegalovirus, or CMV.
Highly Rated Biotech Stock
Moderna stock ranks No. 11 on the IBD 50 list of elite growth stocks.
Shares also have a Relative Strength Rating of 98 out of a best-possible 99. This puts Moderna stock in the leading 2% of all stocks in terms of 12-month performance, according to IBD Digital.
However, shares have a middling Composite Rating of 73, which accounts for an array of technical and fundamental metrics.
Follow Allison Gatlin on Twitter at @IBD_AGatlin.
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