You could have turned £10 into £3k with science stock that surged 177% in one day…is it still worth investing YOUR cash?

A POPULAR science stock has EXPLODED in value, soaring by a whopping 177 per cent in one day and sending investors’ cash rocketing. You might be wondering if there’s more good news to come for this stock, or if it’s too late to invest now. Here’s everything you need to know – including what the market whizzes say… Investors ideally should start investing when a company’s share price is low so they can sell high Moderna made headlines after its successful late-stage trial of a cancer vaccine Credit: Reuters Biotech company Moderna makes vaccines to treat infectious diseases, cancers, cardiovascular diseases and rare illnesses. You’ll probably remember it for developing one of the Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic. But most recently it’s made headlines after it announced the results of its late-stage trial of a vaccine against melanoma skin cancer. The large-scale study found the vaccine, called intismeran, reduced the risk of skin cancer returning when combined with fellow biotech company Merck’s immunotherapy drug, Keytruda. It could mark a major breakthrough in the treatment of the deadliest form of skin cancer. The good news caused Moderna’s share price to surge by a massive 177 per cent last Wednesday, causing the price of shares to go from $60 the day before $176.66 after the results were released. A share is essentially a small slice of a company – if the share price goes up, then investors see the value of their money go up too. Situations like these are what investors dream of. But have you already missed the boat to invest? We explain whether to consider buying, and how much you could potentially make. Am I too late? The aim for investors is to buy shares when the price is low and then sell once their value has gone up, netting you a nice profit. But if you buy while the price is already high, there might be less room for it to go up further. Neil Wilson, Saxo UK investor strategist, said it’s possible Moderna could continue to soar. It has at least eight other trials of the vaccine coming up for other cancers including bladder cancer and metastatic melanoma, with the results expected later this year and in 2027. Neil said if these results are positive too then Moderna’s share price has “got further to run”. “The key is whether the success of the cancer vaccine can read across to other cancers,” he said. Karen Andersen from the investment firm Morningstar agrees that if the company is successful in proving intismeran can reduce the risk of skin cancer recurrence by around 50 per cent, this could mean it’s used widely by healthcare professionals. That could cause the share price to climb upwards. “Intismeran’s success also bodes well for Moderna’s other efforts to design ‘off the shelf’ cancer therapies,” Karen said. “These are in earlier stage trials, but could end up helping patients across multiple types of cancer.” What are the risks I need to watch out for? BEFORE you start investing, you need to understand the risks. The return you make will depend on how much you invest and where you put your money. As we have seen recently, the stock market can dramatically fall. The US market last year saw its biggest drop since the start of the Covid pandemic after President Donald Trump announced plans to introduce tariffs on goods imported from other countries. The UK’s own stock market, the FTSE 100, fell by more than 10 per cent after the news. You must be prepared for the value of your investment to fall as well as rise – so only invest money you can afford to lose. You need to be willing to invest cash for at least five years to mitigate any dips in the market and allow your money to recover. If you can’t afford to lock up your money for this long, investing may not be right for you. It’s usually better to drip-feed money into your investments instead of putting down a big chunk of money in one go. Before you start investing, experts say you should have a minimum of six months’ of wages in a savings account for emergencies. If you’d invested £10 a month in Moderna since it first floated on the stock market in 2018, you would now have £2,805. That includes £930 of your own money and £1,875 in profit – an impressive 202 per cent over eight years. Karen thinks the true value of Moderna’s shares is actually $163, which is above what they’re currently trading at (around $137). However, she said there is a “very high” uncertainty level because the stock’s value is heavily tied to intismeran right now – and it’s unclear how successful that will be until it reaches the market. Beware of the risks Moderna’s shares have climbed – which means there are risks if you invest now Credit: Getty Be aware that Wall Street analysts and investment experts are still cautious about the stock because there is a lot of uncertainty around it. That’s because biotech stocks are famously volatile as they rely heavily on the success of trials, as well as on regulatory approvals. Several large banks have still not gone as far as to recommend buying shares in Moderna. The majority of analysts recommend investors “hold” the stock. This means that if you have shares, you should hold them but not buy any more or sell them yet. Moderna’s share price also moved back down again quickly on Thursday to around $140. Jason Hollands, managing director of corporate affairs at Bestinvest, said: “Buying shares after such a dramatic move higher clearly carries risks, especially in a sector dependent on clinical trials and regulatory approvals. “From an investment perspective, the biotech sector is a highly specialist area and notoriously volatile.” If vaccine trials fail or they don’t get regulatory approval, that can send shares plummeting. What you could invest in instead You could choose an investment fund with a focus on biotech companies like Moderna Credit: AFP or licensors A safer bet is to invest in Moderna through a fund instead. Funds let you invest in a range of different companies, which means your risk is spread out. If you’re interested in investing in medical innovation, you can choose a fund with biotech stocks. Jason suggests looking at Polar Capital Biotechnology or the International Biotechnology Trust. Polar Capital Biotechnology is available through popular investing platforms such as Hargreaves Lansdown and Fidelity and has had a huge 55.44 per cent return in the last year. It doesn’t have shares in Moderna, but it’s invested in companies like Amgen, Arcutis and Rhythm. If you’d invested £10 a month in this fund instead of Moderna since 2018, you would have £1,942 – a return of 109 per cent. The International Biotechnology Trust is also available through Fidelity and Hargreaves Lansdown. It has had an impressive 65.3 per cent return in the last year. Again, it does not hold shares in Moderna. Investing £10 a month in this fund over the same period of time, you would have £1,492 – a 61 per cent return. If you want a fund that specifically holds Moderna shares, you could try the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust. It has had a return of 37.19 per cent over the last year, and also invests in companies like Nvidia, Amazon and Anthropic.