Two Moderna executives sold more than $30 million in shares in the weeks after a closely watched cancer vaccine study triggered a surge in the stock price-and before more detailed results reversed some of the gains, securities filings show.
The sales by Chief Financial Officer James Mock and President Stephen Hoge were made under pre-set trading plans the men adopted in June. That was a couple months before Moderna's shares more than doubled Aug. 19, when it announced its mRNA-based vaccine had prevented melanoma from returning or spreading.
Hoge sold nearly $27 million in shares in mid-September and mid-October after exercising options scheduled to expire in February. Both times, he kept close to half the shares received from the options, valued at about $25 million at the time. Mock sold $2 million in shares received by exercising stock options and another $2 million in other shares on Sept. 10. The executives' share sales were at prices ranging from $134 to $217.
Moderna shares fell nearly 18% Thursday after details from the cancer-vaccine study were shared on social media, raising concerns the treatment might not be as effective as initially hoped.
The sales look routine, said Ben Silverman, head of research at VerityData, which tracks insider stock transactions for investors. Moderna shares were trading around $50 when the executives adopted the trading plans in June, and most of the sales came before the stock's significant run-up in October.
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