Moderna beats profit estimates, fueled by vaccine sales
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2 min read . Updated: 24 Feb 2022, 08:05 PM IST - Vaccine-maker is working on an Omicron-specific booster, but its stock has tumbled this year
Moderna Inc. posted better-than-expected profits for the last three months of 2021 as the company’s vaccine for Covid-19 continued to power its year-over-year growth.
In the latest quarter, Moderna’s revenue reached $7.21 billion, with nearly all of that coming from vaccine sales. The Cambridge, Mass., company said it distributed a total of 807 million shots last year.
More than 75 million people in the U.S. have been vaccinated with Moderna’s shots, and about 40 million have been given the company’s boosters, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That makes its vaccine the second most used in the U.S., behind the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE.
Recently, the Food and Drug Administration has been in the early stages of reviewing data to decide whether to authorize a second round of Covid-19 booster shots, with an eye toward offering the shots in the fall.
This year, Moderna has begun testing a version of its vaccine redesigned with the Omicron variant in mind after the variant caused a surge in world-wide infections starting late last year. More recently, cases and deaths caused by Omicron in the U.S. have begun subsiding.
Moderna posted net income of $4.87 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021, or earnings of $11.29 a share.
Wall Street analysts surveyed by FactSet had been forecasting sales of $6.8 billion and $9.96 a share in earnings.
Moderna shares were down 2% in premarket trading after the company released its quarterly results. Markets sold off broadly Thursday morning following news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At $135.73 at Wednesday’s close, Moderna’s stock has lost nearly half of its value year to date.
Looking ahead, Moderna said its advance-purchase agreements for 2022 total approximately $19 billion.
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This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text
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