Cramer says he wants to see if Moderna execs sell stock before believing early vaccine developments
- "Memo to Moderna: You don't have to sell. You can sit on it," Jim Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street."
- CEO Stephane Bancel's sales of stock this year and a secondary offering by the company in May have faced criticism as Moderna has provided regular updates on its Covid-19 vaccine candidate
- Securities filings showed that Moderna executives sold shares over the past week, before releasing the data.
CNBC's Jim Cramer said Wednesday that he wants to see the insider stock sales activity at Moderna before deciding how confident to be about the vaccine data the drug company released on Tuesday night.
"There's one document that I want to see. I want to see if anyone sold any stock at Moderna today or tomorrow. Because that will really determine to me whether this thing has just got to be put (with) a total asterisk. ... Memo to Moderna: You don't have to sell. You can sit on it," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street."
CEO Stephane Bancel's sales of stock this year and a secondary offering by the company in May have faced criticism as Moderna has provided regular updates on its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, which sometimes have contained incomplete information. Cramer said that the company has been promotional and is releasing data that it does not need to.
Bancel has sold more than 500,000 shares of the stock over the past three quarters, according to InsiderScore.com. Many of these have been transactions have been as part of predetermined trading plans.
Moderna shares popped following the release of the trial data on Tuesday night. The stock price rose more than 12% to roughly $84.50 per share on Wednesday morning.
Securities filings showed that Moderna executives sold shares over the past week, before releasing the data.
Bancel sold roughly 20,000 shares on July 10, at an average price of around $64 per share. Bancel's moves were part of a pre-determined plan for stock sales.
Chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks made similar moves, according to securities filings. Zaks exercised stock options to buy 20,000 shares of Moderna on Monday and sold all of those shares by the end of the day.
The options were exercised at roughly $20 per share, while the series of sales had weighted averages between $64 and $78 per share.