Moderna Stock Rallies As Company Joins The S&P 500 Index – MENAFN.COM

Moderna Stock Rallies As Company Joins The S&P 500 Index – MENAFN.COM

Pharmaceutical company Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) has joined the S&P 500 stock index. The addition to the S&P 500, which is comprised of the 500 largest U. S. stocks by market capitalization, comes as the drugmaker transforms itself from an early-stage biotech firm to a vaccine maker supplying COVID-19 shots around the world. And Moderna is now the best performing stock in the S&P 500 this year. With a gain of just over 207% so far in 2021, Moderna's share performance tops the index's existing leader, L Brands, which has risen 104% year to date. In the runup to its inclusion in the U. S. benchmark, Moderna's stock has made fresh highs advancing more than 30% over four trading sessions. The shares are now at $321. 11 U. S., giving the company a market capitalization of $129 billion U. S. Skeptics of Moderna's surge in recent months note that its pipeline is in the early stages of human testing while the market for COVID-19 booster shots isn't fully understood. Still, recent lab results show Moderna's vaccine produces antibodies against the COVID-19 Delta variant. Analysts at Goldman Sachs predict Moderna could have a new flu shot on the market by 2023 and a