Moderna On Cathie Wood's Radar Ahead Of Q2 Results: Ark Boosts Stake In COVID-19 Vaccine Maker By $12M This Week

Cathie Wood's Ark Investment Management continued to load up on shares of COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) this week. The purchases assume importance as the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company is scheduled to report its second-quarter results Thursday, Aug. 3.

What Happened: Ark through its Ark Genomic Revolution ETF (CBOE: ARKG), bought 37,150 shares of Moderna on Tuesday. The purchase is valued at $4.53 million based on Moderna's closing price of $121.87 on Tuesday.

This marked a back-to-back buy as ARKG lapped up 61,741 Moderna shares on Monday valued at $7.60 million.

So far this week, Ark bought roughly $12.13 million worth of stock in the vaccine maker.

The week's purchases come after a long hiatus. Previously in June 2022, ARKG accumulated 172,939 Moderna shares.

With the latest transaction, Ark now holds 244,271 shares of Moderna, which account for 1.26% of the portfolio weighting. Moderna is ranked 27^th in terms of its weighting in ARKG’s portfolio.

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Why It's Important: When Moderna reports next week, analysts, on average, expect a loss of $4.03 per share, reversing from a profit of $5.24 in the year-ago period. Revenue is expected to plunge 93.30% to $319.64 million.

The company has lost its mojo after COVID-19 vaccine demand tapered off following the alleviation of the pandemic situation. The company, which pioneered a vaccine technology called mRNA, has other drivers of growth.

Moderna recently made regulatory submissions for its respiratory syncytial vaccine candidate, mRNA-1345, with the European, Swiss and Australian regulators. It also began a rolling submission for the same with the FDA. It also has in its pipeline a trio of flu vaccines, and a combo vaccine for COVID-19, flu and RSV, among others.

The company is also developing a personalized cancer vaccine with Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK).

In late June, UBS upgraded the stock from Neutral to Buy, reasoning that investors are yet to fully appreciate its pipeline beyond COVID-19.

Price Action: Moderna closed Tuesday’s session down 0.93% at $121.87, according to Benzinga Pro data. This is a far cry from the $497.49 at which the stock traded in Aug. 2021 amid COVID-19 vaccine demand optimism.

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