Pharma giants Moderna (MRNA, $186.64) reported second-quarter results that beat earnings and revenue expectations. Numbers were buoyed by $4.5 billion in sales from its Covid -19 vaccine. This however was caveated by the fact that it’s still the company’s only commercially available product and it took a big hit on expiring shots.
The company retained its full-year outlook for $21 billion in sales, based on current agreements. But that could change with the authorization of an omicron-blasting Covid booster shot. Overall, Moderna earned $5.24 per share on $4.75 billion in second-quarter sales. As expected, the company's profit fell by 19%. But analysts called for a deeper decline to $4.58 per share. Moderna took a nearly $500 million hit on write-downs for vaccines that have expired or are expected to expire before they can be used.
Moderna also lost $184 million in vaccine purchase commitments with the mainly charges due to substantial reductions in expected vaccine deliveries to Covax.
Moderna also lost $184 million in vaccine purchase commitments due to substantial reductions in expected vaccine deliveries to Covax. The COVID-19 vaccinations producer also stated that it will buy back $3 billion in shares.
Why it matters
Despite the world seemingly deciding to live with COVID. Cases and variations are still knocking about and as such are helping to prop up the balance sheet of the two vaccination big hitters Pfizer (PFE, $49.86) and Moderna. The former saw its quarterly sales surge due to the vaccine as well as a lucrative tie-up with the US government whilst Moderna last week announced a $1.74 billion agreement with the US to supply 66 million doses of its updated Covid vaccine that targets omicron subvariants.
