Moderna Gets Analyst Downgrade After $1.1B R&D Spending Cut

Shares of Moderna (MRNA) fell for the second day in a row after the company said it would slash its research and development expenditures.

The stock was recently off about 3%, with analysts at JPMorgan contributing to the pullback. The firm dropped its rating on the shares to underweight from neutral, cutting its price target to $70 from $88. That target is substantially below Wall Street’s consensus of around $100, according ot Visible Alpha.

Shares of the medical biotechnology firm dropped 12% on Thursday, closing around $70. They’re down some 30% this year.

Moderna said it would cut $1.1 billion in expenses by 2027 and acknowledged that its individualized neoantigen therapy (INT) cancer treatment is unlikely to receive accelerated approval from the Food and Drug Administration. 

“Despite some significant clinical wins that underscore the versatility of [Moderna’s mRNA] platform, with confirmation that INT is unlikely to be filed for accelerated approval, and our expectation that quarterly results are unlikely to consistently surprise to the upside, we think it could be challenging for the stock to perform,” JP Morgan analysts said.

Moderna on Thursday projected fiscal 2025 revenue of $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion compared to analyst projections of $2.9 billion. It expects to break even on an operating cash cost basis with a projected $6 billion in revenue in 2028, once more products have been approved.