Posted on 05/22/2020 8:19:32 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Moderna's stock price skyrocketed as much as 30% on Monday after the biotech company announced promising early results for its coronavirus vaccine. As ordinary investors piled in, two insiders were quietly heading for the exits.
Moderna's chief financial officer and chief medical officer executed options and sold nearly $30 million of shares combined on Monday and Tuesday, SEC filings reviewed by CNN Business show.
The sales occurred after Moderna (MRNA) excited Wall Street before markets opened Monday by announcing encouraging vaccine trial results. Moderna's market value swelled to $29 billion -- even though the company has no marketed products.
After spiking to as high as $87 on Monday, Moderna's stock price has since retreated below $70 as medical experts have debated the importance of the early findings.
The securities transactions were done through automated insider trading plans, known as 10b5-1 plans, that lay out future stock trades at set prices or on set dates.
Lorence Kim, Moderna's chief financial officer, exercised 241,000 options for $3 million on Monday, filings show. He then immediately sold them for $19.8 million, creating a profit of $16.8 million.
The next day, Tal Zaks, Moderna's chief medical officer, spent $1.5 million to exercise options. He immediately sold the shares for $9.77 million, triggering a profit of $8.2 million.
Moderna said the sales were executed under 10b5-1 trading plans that were established in advance. "These transactions are executing automatically pursuant to these trading plans," the company said.
Although the fortuitous timing of the transactions may raise eyebrows, Charles Whitehead, professor at Cornell Law School, said the stock sales did not appear to raise any legal red flags.
"On its face, there is nothing wrong with these trades," Whitehead said. "It's what a 10b5-1 plan is intended for, assuming the requirements are met."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
They were paying pennies and sold for a profit. This was part of a pre-plan so I'm not sure why we care.
Why is abortion a keyword on this story?
“The plans were established in advance.”
Fair enough. But then the trade dates were known in advance so while the timing of the exercise isn’t in question but the timing of the announcement surely is!
I read a week or two ago on FR that Moderna’s vaccine uses fetal cells from aborted babies.
Future senators.
I am not really seeing the "disaster" part.
When I read the report without the negative hysteria, what I see is that they have established doses which are safe and effective, and a dose which is too high and is not safe.
Now go ahead and tell me why this is not good news.
If you own stock in any company trying to make a vaccine, and there is a positive (bs) article about it!
Dump that stock asap or have a sell order to protect your temporary gain sliding into a big market price loss.
I hope with all my heart that sooner or later someone will come up with a vaccine, however to date, there has never been a successful coronavirus vaccine made, due to the nature of the virus. Additionally, past attempts to create a coronavirus vaccine have ONLY RESULTED IN LEAVING THE VACCINATED PERSON WITH A HIGHER CHANCE OF SERIOUS ILLNESS AND DEATH WHEN LATER EXPOSED TO ANOTHER STRAIN OF THE VIRUS. And it is in the nature of this family of viruses to mutate, just like the regular flu virus.
The vaccine study used Wuhan Virus protein spikes in 4 different quantities. Only the highest level administered had a serious negative result.
The more promising news is the lowest level administered resulted in the creation of antibodies at the same levels detected in people who had recovered from the actual virus itself.
So, the study does not appear to be a complete failure. I just hope the people who got sick from receiving the high dose of protein spikes recover fully.
It looks like fraud.
your links boil down to the following:
three people had a serious adverse event
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.