Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) shares are trending on Wednesday. The company received a $176 million award from the Rapid Response Partnership Vehicle to boost Influenza vaccine development.

What To Know: On Tuesday, the company announced this award which will aid in the development of an mRNA-based vaccine against the H5 influenza virus.

"mRNA vaccine technology offers advantages in efficacy, speed of development, and production scalability and reliability in addressing infectious disease outbreaks, as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic," said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna.

Last year the company started a Phase 1/2 study of possible vaccine candidates against the H5 and H7 influenza viruses, results are expected sometime in 2024.

What Else: Moderna's RSV vaccine, on June 28, received positive opinion from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use. This could lead to marketing authorization in the European Union.

How To Buy Moderna Stock

By now you're likely curious about how to participate in the market for Moderna – be it to purchase shares, or even attempt to bet against the company.

Buying shares is typically done through a brokerage account. You can find a list of possible trading platforms here. Many will allow you to buy 'fractional shares,' which allows you to own portions of stock without buying an entire share. For example, some stock, like Berkshire Hathaway, or Amazon.com, can cost thousands of dollars to own just one share. However, if you only want to invest a fraction of that, brokerages will allow you to do so.

In the the case of Moderna, which is trading at $115.99 as of publishing time, $100 would buy you 0.86 shares of stock.

If you're looking to bet against a company, the process is more complex. You'll need access to an options trading platform, or a broker who will allow you to 'go short' a share of stock by lending you the shares to sell. The process of shorting a stock can be found at this resource. Otherwise, if your broker allows you to trade options, you can either buy a put option, or sell a call option at a strike price above where shares are currently trading – either way it allows you to profit off of the share price decline.

MRNA Price Action: Moderna stock is trading .98% lower at $115.92 as of Wednesday morning per data from Benzinga Pro.

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