Moderna jumps after reporting much smaller Q3 loss than feared; sales also beat estimates
The company reported earnings results on Thursday.
Moderna rose in premarket trading after it reported third-quarter results that crushed Wall Street estimates.
The company reported a loss per share of $0.51, significantly less than the $2.21 loss per share analysts polled by Bloomberg were expecting on average, reflecting an aggressive cost-cutting campaign. In fact, that’s a better result than any one of the 18 analysts who submitted an earnings estimate had anticipated.
It also reported $1 billion in sales, more than the $879.6 million the Street was penciling in. Still, Moderna nudged the midpoint of its range of guidance for annual sales lower, to $1.8 billion from $1.85 billion.
The sales numbers may quell investor fears over how much the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new, narrower recommendation for when COVID-19 booster shots are appropriate could hurt sales.
Moderna is perhaps best known for being tapped by the US government to quickly develop a vaccine for COVID-19 in 2020, which remains its main source of revenue.
But the company has yet to add new products to its portfolio and is faced with a second Trump administration hostile to vaccines. Last month, the company disclosed that it was cutting development of a vaccine designed to prevent birth defects caused by cytomegalovirus, or CMV, after disappointing trial results.
Moderna rose more than 5% in premarket trading after the earnings report was released. It’s down more than 40% since the start of the year.
