Top Moderna Shareholders

Moderna Inc. (MRNA) is a biotechnology company that develops medicines based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), which transfers genetic information to the cellular machinery that makes proteins to sustain life. The company develops medicines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, cardiovascular diseases, and other diseases. Its revenue and market value have skyrocketed during the past few quarters after winning Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the vaccine it developed to protect against COVID-19.

The top shareholders of Moderna are Robert S. Langer, Stéphane Bancel, Noubar B. Afeyan, Baillie Gifford & Company, and Flagship Pioneering Inc.

In mid-March 2021, Moderna began testing its COVID-19 vaccine in children aged 6 months to 11 years in the U.S. and Canada. Currently, the company's vaccine is authorized for use in adults aged 18 and older.

Moderna's 12-month trailing net income and revenue are -$747.1 million and $803.4 million, respectively. The company's market cap is about $59.4 billion. These financial data are as of April 13, 2021.

Top 3 Individual Insider Shareholders

The shares owned by individual insider shareholders are those that are held through direct ownership. Shares mentioned in this section do not include shares held indirectly nor shares accessible through stock options. Company insiders must file an SEC Form 4 every time they buy or sell an amount of the company's stock that is deemed to be material.

Robert S. Langer

Robert S. Langer owns a total of 11.5 million Moderna shares, representing 2.9% of the company's total shares outstanding. Langer serves on the board of directors. He is the David H. Koch Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and has about 800 issued and pending patents. He also served as a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's SCIENCE Board between 1995 and 2002, and as its chair from 1999 to 2002. He has won numerous awards, including the Charles Stark Draper Prize, which is considered one of the most prestigious awards in the field of engineering. Langer has a net worth of $1.9 billion.

Stéphane Bancel

Stéphane Bancel owns a total of 6.4 million Moderna shares, representing 1.6% of the company's total shares outstanding. Bancel currently serves as chief executive officer (CEO) and as a member of the board of directors. Since joining Moderna in 2011, he has led the company's expansion, partly by raising close to $2 billion through equity financing and licensing collaborations. Before Moderna, Bancel was CEO of bioMérieux SA, a French-based biotechnology company. Prior to that, he worked in numerous roles at drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY). Bancel has a net worth of $4.9 billion.

Noubar B. Afeyan

Noubar B. Afeyan owns a total of 2.1 million Moderna shares, representing 0.5% of the company's total shares outstanding. Afeyan is one of the company's co-founders and is chair of the board. He is also the founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering Inc., a venture capital firm that invests in the pharmaceutical, electronic, and medical devices sectors. He has co-founded and helped to build more than 40 life science and technology startups and serves on the boards of several Flagship companies as well as Moderna. Afeyan has a net worth of $2.1 billion.

Top 3 Institutional Shareholders

Institutional investors hold between 43-51% of Moderna's total shares outstanding. Institutional investors -- institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in assets under management (AUM) -- must file an SEC Form 13F every quarter to disclose their equity holdings. Individual investors may be considered institutional investors if they acquire 5% or more of a company's shares, thus requiring them to file either a Schedule 13D or Schedule 13G form.

Baillie Gifford & Co.

Baillie Gifford owns 44.7 million shares of Moderna, representing 11.2% of total shares outstanding, according to the company's 13G filing for the period ending Feb. 1, 2021. The U.K.-based company is a global investment management firm that provides portfolio management, consulting, financial planning, and investment supervisory services. Baillie Gifford has $445.3 billion in AUM and manages a range of mutual funds. Moderna is among the top ten holdings of the firm's Baillie Gifford Positive Change Equities Fund, comprising about 5.5% of the portfolio.

Flagship Pioneering Inc.

Flagship Pioneering owns 30.9 million shares of Moderna, representing 7.7% of total shares outstanding, according to the company's 13F filing for the period ending Dec. 31, 2020. As mentioned above, Flagship is a venture capital firm. Its team of experienced scientists, entrepreneurs, and operational executives seeks to identify and invest in early-stage and growth-stage companies that could benefit from economies of scale. In the company's last reported 13F filling, it held $5.5 billion in managed 13F securities. Moderna was its largest holding, comprising 58.7% of its portfolio.

Stéphane Bancel

Stéphane Bancel, as an institutional investor, owns 28.7 million shares of Moderna, representing 7.2% of total shares outstanding, according to his 13G filing for the period ending Dec. 31, 2020. Bancel's institutional holdings include shares of which he has direct ownership, as noted in the individual insider section above. According to his 13G, Bancel has direct ownership of about 6.5 million shares of Moderna, slightly above the figure mentioned earlier. The difference can be explained by the difference in timing between his most recent 13G filing and Form 4 filing. Form 4's are usually more recent since they must be filed whenever a material amount of shares are either bought or sold. Bancel's institutional holdings also include shares of Moderna that are held indirectly through OCHA LLC and Boston Biotech Ventures LLC, both of which Bancel is the majority unit holder and sole managing member. OCHA directly owns 7.6 million Moderna shares while Boston Biotech owns about 9.1 million shares. Additionally, Bancel's institutional holdings include 5.2 million shares issuable upon exercise of share options and approximately 0.2 million shares held by a trust for the benefit of his family. Because Bancel is in a position where he has sole voting power over these 28.7 million shares, regardless of whether they are held indirectly or not, he is required to disclose these holdings. The SEC requires high levels of disclosure and transparency as it aims to protect the integrity of capital markets for the benefit of all investors.