Moderna stock popped Thursday after sales of its Covid vaccine outperformed Wall Street's forecasts, though guidance for 2022 came in light.
For the year, Moderna has signed agreements worth $19 billion in sales of its Covid vaccine, with options for another $3 billion in doses. The company expects Covid to become an endemic disease, like the flu, and expects a sales boom in the second half of 2022.
Importantly, the company says it's in active discussions for additional orders this year. In an endemic scenario, people would require semiregular boosters, similar to the annual flu shot. Agreements for additional doses could put Moderna's full-year sales above current projections for $21.5 billion.
On today's stock market, Moderna stock jumped 15% to close at 156.13. That helped shares recover from a premarket slide.
Moderna Stock: Earnings, Sales Beat
During the fourth quarter, Moderna earned $11.29 per share, minus certain items, on $7.21 billion in revenue. Earnings turned around from a year-earlier loss and revenue skyrocketed a quadruple-digit percentage. Moderna's Covid vaccine first gained authorization in December 2020.
Since then, it has won full approval in the U.S. for adults. It's now available in more than 70 countries, selling under the name Spikevax — an homage to the spike protein it mimics to induce an immune response. Fourth-quarter vaccine sales were $6.9 billion based on 297 million doses.
In the year-ago period, Moderna sold 13 million doses.
Revenue and earnings easily beat Moderna stock analysts' projection for earnings of $9.96 per share on $6.8 billion in sales, according to FactSet.
The company also noted it's in pivotal testing for its omicron-specific booster, though U.S. officials haven't said whether it will be necessary. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech are also working on a rival omicron booster shot.
Follow Allison Gatlin on Twitter at @IBD_AGatlin.
