We recently published a list of These 10 Firms Were Thursday’s Top Performers. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) stands against other firms that were Thursday’s top performers.

Wall Street’s main indices closed higher again on Thursday, with the Dow eking out a 0.92-percent gain, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite grew 0.53 percent and 0.22 percent, respectively.

Ten companies, predominantly under the health, energy, and technology sectors—mirrored the gains on the back of stronger earnings performance and other catalysts fueling buying appetite.

Thursday’s top advancers only considered the stocks with at least $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume.

A scientist surrounded by vials and beakers in a modern laboratory, proudly displaying a vaccine.

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) rose for a fourth day on Thursday to grow by 10.10 percent at $42.39 apiece as investors continued to snap up shares in the company following news that it bagged a new $590 million deal to develop and accelerate the creation of a bird flu vaccine.

While bird flu used to be more of an agriculture concern, the latest data said that 66 humans were already confirmed to have contracted the flu, with at least one individual succumbing to the virus.

The new bird flu vaccine deal marks the second deal the company bagged after the $176-million H5N1 avian influenza virus awarded earlier.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) was previously awarded funds to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and has been struggling to keep its pandemic-era revenue levels.

Overall, MRNA ranks 8th on our list of firms that were Thursday’s top performers. While we acknowledge the potential of MRNA as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an 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.