Here's what Moderna reported for the fourth quarter compared to Wall Street's expectations, based on an analyst survey from LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:
- Earnings per share: 55 cents. That may not compare to a loss of 97 cents expected by analysts.
- Revenue: $2.81 billion versus $2.50 billion
Moderna posted fourth-quarter net income of $217 million, or 55 cents per share. That compares to net income of $1.47 billion, or $3.61 per share, in the year-ago period.
The biotech company posted fourth-quarter revenue of $2.81 billion, with sales of its Covid shot down 43% compared to the same period last year. Moderna said this decline was primarily due to lower vaccine volumes, but was partially offset by a higher average selling price of the vaccine.
Specifically, the company said it recorded $600 million in deferred revenue during the quarter related to the company's collaboration with Gavi, a non-governmental global vaccine organization that coordinated a global vaccine distribution program.
But Moderna CFO Jamey Mock said in an interview with CNBC that deferred revenue was “kind of a non-event” and not “really the best way to beat earnings.”
He noted that Moderna was more pleased with lower-than-expected cost of sales, which he said was one of the main reasons the company's earnings came in above some analysts' expectations.
Cost of sales was $929 million in the fourth quarter and $4.69 billion for the full year. These include charges related to the company's efforts to reduce manufacturing of its Covid vaccination, as well as write-offs of unused doses of the vaccine.
In November, Moderna said it expected cost of sales for the year to be $5 billion.
“In the fourth quarter, we started to see some productivity gains, and that's what we're excited about,” Mock said, adding that Gavi's deferred revenue was “purely accounting in nature.”
Still, the deferred revenue boosted Moderna's full-year Covid vaccine sales to $6.7 billion, an amount the company first reported in January. The company reported $18 billion in sales in 2022 and expects sales of the shot to fall even further in 2024.
Moderna reiterated its full-year 2024 revenue forecast of around $4 billion. This forecast includes revenue from the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, which could receive US Food and Drug Administration approval in April.
The company will further reduce expenses in 2024, Mock said, including expected full-year research and development costs of $4.5 billion, down from $4.8 billion in 2023.
“We will also increase our discipline,” he said.
Moderna has said it expects to return to revenue growth in 2025 and reach breakeven with new product launches by 2026. The company lost $4.7 billion for full-year 2023, compared to a profit of $8.4 billion
billion the year before.
Moderna currently has 45 products in development, nine of which are in late-stage testing. This includes Moderna's combination shot against Covid and the flu, which could be approved as early as 2025.
The pipeline also includes Moderna's personalized cancer vaccine, a highly anticipated vaccine being co-developed with Merck that targets various tumor types in combination with the blockbuster immunotherapy Keytruda.
Moderna will host a conference call with investors at 8:00 a.m. ET.