Goldman Sachs’ Top Growth Investors: 34 Stocks With The Highest Investment For Growth

5. Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Growth Investment Ratio: 196%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 39

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) is the firm that rose to fame during the coronavirus pandemic due to its Spikevax vaccine. This also made its share price blossom, but since then, the firm has struggled in the market. Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) continues to rely on respiratory vaccines to generate revenue. Its two largest revenue contributors are its coronavirus vaccine and its respiratory tract vaccine mRESVIA. As a result, Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) has to aggressively invest in new vaccines to expand its portfolio. The investments grow its R&D expenditure and stress the bottom line to make the firm a loss-making entity. In fact, for the trailing twelve months as of Q2, Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) spent as much in R&D as it earned since its $4.98 billion in revenue was nearly matched by $4.6 billion in R&D expenses. Yet, the drag from these on the stock can reverse, as was the case following Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA)’s Q3 results. These saw the firm’s shares soar by 5% after it reported a $13 million profit in contrast to analyst estimates of $753 million. However, longer-term concerns still linger as the stock is down by 11.7% since the earnings.

One key disease for which Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) is developing a treatment is the norovirus. Also called viral gastroenteritis, here’s what the firm shared about the trials during its Q3 2024 earnings call:

“On Slide 22 is the design of our Phase III study for our norovirus vaccine candidate. As a reminder, norovirus is a gastrointestinal disease with high unmet need and no approved vaccines on the market. The Phase III study is designed to test the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of our vaccine in 25,000 adults aged 18 and older. It is randomized one-to-one, observer blind, and placebo controlled.”