We recently compiled a list of the These 10 Companies Led Gains on Wednesday. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) stands against the other stocks.

Wall Street’s main indices ended firmer on Wednesday as share prices remained boosted by positive catalysts from President Donald Trump's inauguration coupled with better-than-expected earnings performance.

The Dow rose by 0.30 percent, the S&P 500 grew 0.61 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite increased 1.28 percent.

Meanwhile, 10 companies under mixed sectors mirrored Wall Street's gains. In this article, we will look at which companies led the rally and explore the reasons behind their impressive performance.

To come up with Wednesday's top gainers, we considered only 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)

Pharmaceutical giant Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) grew its share prices by 7.27 percent to end at $38.5 apiece after bagging a $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, reports said that 66 humans were confirmed to have contracted the flu, with at least one individual succumbing to the virus.

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

Moderna’s $590-million deal was on top of the $176 million awarded by the US Department of Health and Human Services to complete the development of a vaccine against H5N1 avian influenza.

Overall MRNA ranks 7th on our list of companies that led gains on Wednesday. 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 timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MRNA but 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.