Moderna's Data From Personalized Cancer Vaccine Provides Relief To Investors, Analyst Says

Moderna Inc MRNA and Merck & Co Inc's MRK investigational personalized mRNA cancer vaccine + Keytruda demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in recurrence-free survival versus Keytruda.
SVB Leerink has raised the price target on Moderna from $101 to $102.
The analyst says it has fielded a steady stream of inbounds from investors nervous about elevated expectations for personalized cancer vaccine (PCV) data and expects shares to trade up on relief in response to this data.
The analyst expects the applicability of PCV outside of this setting to drive controversy as investors debate how directly one can translate data in Melanoma to other indications.
Oppenheimer keeps Neutral rating on Moderna. The analyst says that China's sales could be a near-term tailwind, but competition and pricing pressure could put downward pressure on MRNA's mid/long-term margins.
The analyst also writes that any order from China of mRNA vaccines for the 2023/24 fall season might take a few more months to formalize.
Price Action: MRNA shares are up 23.60% at $204.18 on the last check Tuesday