We recently published a list of 10 Stocks with Potential to Explode in 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) stands against other stocks with potential to explode in 2025.
The recent pullback in US equities can be a sign of an aging bull market and a reaction to developments happening around trade policy, as per Jurrien Timmer, Director of Global Macro for Fidelity Management & Research Company. Corrections and volatility are the factors investors need to consider to capture any sort of long-term market returns. The current volatility has got many investors worried regarding the prospects of losing their gains.
Pullbacks Are Part and Parcel
As of March 11, the S&P 500 Index declined 9.3% from its all-time closing high it touched in mid-February, says Timmer. According to him, the market has seen a decline of 5% or more in 93% of calendar years since the year 1980, and it has suffered a 10% or more drop in 47% over the same calendar years. Yet, its average calendar-year return over a similar period has been ~13.3%. This means that pullbacks are quite common in the equity markets. The broader market has seen recovery from every one of those periods and has delivered healthy long-term returns.
READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In.
Expert’s Views on Current Market Dynamics
Timmer opines that bull markets generally take place when there are expectations that the news can’t get any worse. The markets are forward-looking, meaning that stocks always showcase the expectations regarding the future. Even if the current news is not favorable, if investors think that tomorrow’s news will be less bad, the prices might start to increase. In this stage, the market continues to increase despite a decline in profits or earnings. This reflects that the higher P/E ratios have been fueling the market. After 2 – 4 quarters, the profits start to show up. Now, as the bull market matures, earnings growth tends to take charge, with the PE ratios beginning to decline.
As per Timmer, the market investors are in this environment. The earnings growth remains in the double digits, but since investors are getting into the later innings of the bull market, the P/E ratios have now been stretched. The broader market is slightly more prone to fluctuations or volatility. Apart from these trends, the market continues to process the impact of current trade policy shifts. Overall, Timmer said that across all different cycles, booms, crises, and busts, the markets eventually recovered and touched new all-time highs.
Our Methodology
To list the 10 Stocks with Potential to Explode in 2025, we sifted through several online rankings to shortlist the stocks that analysts see significant upside to, as of March 18. Next, we mentioned hedge fund sentiment around each stock, as of Q4 2024. Finally, the stocks were arranged in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A scientist surrounded by vials and beakers in a modern laboratory, proudly displaying a vaccine.
Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA)
Average Upside Potential: ~105.1%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 44
Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) is a biotechnology company, which is engaged in providing messenger RNA medicines in the US, Europe, and internationally. The company has made progress in 2024 through its late-stage pipeline and cost-reduction efforts. Its team successfully filed 3 Biologics License Applications in the final months of the year and decreased its costs by 27% as compared to 2023. Entering 2025, Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) remains focused on fueling sales, providing up to 10 product approvals through 2027, and expanding the cost efficiencies throughout the business. By the end of 2025, the company targets removing ~$1 billion in costs.
Given the healthy momentum in its late-stage pipeline, Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) expects multiple approvals starting this year, together with key Phase 3 readouts that can support its long-term growth. Coming to the respiratory vaccines, the company has shared positive Phase 3 vaccine efficacy and immunogenicity data for its next-generation COVID-19 vaccine (mRNA-1283). Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) filed for regulatory approval of mRNA-1283 with the FDA through a priority review voucher. The FDA accepted the company’s Biologics License Application (BLA) for mRNA-1283 and has assigned a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) goal date of May 31, 2025. Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) has also received regulatory approval for its RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus) vaccine mRESVIA (mRNA-1345) for adults aged 60 years and older in 2024. It shared positive Phase 3 data for mRNA-1345 in high-risk adults aged 18-59.
Overall, MRNA ranks 7th on our list of stocks with potential to explode in 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of MRNA as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued AI stock that is more promising than MRNA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
