By Josh Nathan-Kazis and Nate Wolf
Shares of Moderna rose 6.1% in premarket trading Friday after the vaccine company reported better-than-expected quarterly results and narrowed its full-year guidance.
Moderna posted a loss of 51 cents a share for the third quarter, down from a profit of 3 cents last year, but narrower than analysts' consensus calls for a loss of $2.12. Revenue totaled $1.02 billion for the quarter, ahead of Wall Street's estimate of $880 million.
The company now expects 2025 revenue of $1.6 billion to $2 billion, compared to a previous range of $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion.
This is breaking news. Read a preview of Moderna's earnings below and check back for more analysis soon.
Moderna reports earnings early Thursday as investors wonder whether the biotech will run through its pandemic-era windfall before it stops losing money.
The vaccine company had accumulated nearly $20 billion in cash by early 2022, thanks to the record-smashing sales of its Covid-19 shot, but has been losing billions of dollars a year since 2023. Management has said Moderna will have $6 billion left at the end of this year, will stop losing money in 2028, and won't need to raise any new cash to bridge the gap.
The recent news, however, hasn't been great, and the stock has been sliding. The shares are down more than 40% this year, and more than 90% since the stock's peak in the summer of 2021
In late October, Moderna said it was stopping development of a vaccine designed to prevent birth defects caused by cytomegalovirus, or CMV, after disappointing trial results.
Demand for Covid-19 vaccines, meanwhile, is anemic. On Tuesday, Pfizer, which remains Moderna's main competitor in the U.S. Covid-19 vaccine market, reported sales of its Covid-19 vaccine that were down 20% from the same quarter last year.
Moderna's vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus, mRESVIA, has so far failed to make a dent in the market, where it competes with shots from GSK and Pfizer.
Analysts are expecting Moderna to report revenue of $880 million in the third quarter, according to FactSet. The consensus calls are for an operating loss of $902 million, and a loss of $2.12 per share.
In early August, the company said to expect full-year revenue of between $1.5 billion and $2.2 billion. Current FactSet estimates have the number coming in at $1.9 billion.
One potential reason for hope is Moderna's pipeline of cancer drugs, which the company has emphasized as its vaccine business has floundered. This week, the company announced the start of an early-stage study of mRNA-2808, an experimental skin-cancer drug. Investors are focused on an individualized cancer treatment called mRNA-4157, which Moderna is developing in partnership with Merck.
The company is hosting an investor call at 8 a.m. Eastern on Thursday morning.
Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at josh.nathan-kazis@barrons.com
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November 06, 2025 07:15 ET (12:15 GMT)
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