Moderna Stock Crash: Losses Top $140 Billion As Insiders Sell Millions of Dollars In Shares
February 23, 2022 in News by RBN Staff
source: needtoknownews
Shares of Moderna plummeted Monday as Covid-19 vaccine-makers led a turbulent market decline, pushing the stock to its lowest level in nearly a year after disappointing study results and a slew of sales from the firm’s top executives added to concerns that have made one of last year’s top-performing stocks crash more than 70%.
Key Facts
Moderna stock fell as much as 13% on Monday to a 10-month low of less than $140, pushing shares down more than 30% over the past month amid a sell-off largely centered on technology and healthcare firms that skyrocketed in value during the pandemic.
The rout has been particularly bad for Covid-19-related stocks in recent weeks, says Bank of America analyst Geoff Meacham, who points out pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, down 2% Monday, has also been caught in the mix despite the promise of its Covid antiviral pill after it warned in its fourth-quarter earnings report that vaccine sales will decelerate this year.
With Covid cases plummeting from all-time highs, experts have increasingly questioned whether vaccines will be a sustainable revenue stream in the years to come, and adding to the concerns, a study released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed Moderna and Pfizer booster shots lost substantial effectiveness after about four months.
Moderna’s recent losses also follow a slew of regulatory filings released Friday evening which showed four Moderna executives—including billionaire CEO Stéphane Bancel—sold a combined 23,281 shares for about $3.6 million last week.
Making up a majority of the total sales, Bancel offloaded 19,000 shares for about $155 apiece to net about $3 million in pre-tax proceeds as part of a trading plan that has helped the 49-year-old sell more than 2 million shares during the pandemic.
In a statement, a Moderna spokesperson said Bancel “personally invested in every single one” of the firm’s funding rounds before its initial public offering in 2018 and remains an owner of 21.8 million shares of Moderna’s common stock.
