Investors aren’t fully appreciating the broader uses for Moderna’s mRNA vaccines, creating a giant buying opportunity, UBS said Monday. The bank upgraded Moderna to purchase from neutral. UBS did lower its price goal to $191 from $221, though the brand new forecast implies upside of 61% from Friday’s close. Moderna shares have struggled in 2023, losing greater than 34%. MRNA YTD mountain Moderna stock has declined nearly 35% thus far this yr. UBs analyst Eliana Merle noted that while the longer term of the Covid-19 market is uncertain — which is thus putting a matter mark on 2023 revenues — the stock’s decline could present a buying opportunity because it only aspects within the downside risk from coronavirus vaccines without the potential upside from other products. Merle pointed toward vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus, the flu and cytomegalovirus as promising upside drivers for the corporate. “We predict MRNA’s CMV vaccine may very well be a serious potential upside driver over the subsequent 1-2 years, with limited priced in (leading reason behind birth defects, no approved vaccines),” Merle said. “We predict latent viruses may very well be a big [opportunity] for mRNA (high public health needs, lack of successful vaccines) and success in CMV would have reads to other programs (e.g. EBV).” — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.