Moderna (MRNA) Q4 earnings 2024

Moderna on Friday posted fourth-quarter revenue that beat estimates, but lost more than expected for the period, as the biotech company continues to slash costs and demand for its Covid vaccine falls. 

It marks another quarter of growing pains for the company, which is racing to launch new products and recover from the rapid decline of its once-booming Covid business. 

Shares of Moderna climbed more than 3% on Friday.

Moderna posted a net loss of $1.12 billion, or $2.91 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2024. That compares with net income of $217 million, or 55 cents per share, reported for the year-ago period.

The company said the quarterly loss includes a roughly $238 million noncash charge related to ending a contract manufacturing agreement.

In an interview, Moderna Chief Financial Officer Jamey Mock said one of the most important takeaways from the company’s full-year 2024 results is that it reduced costs by 27% compared to 2023. By the end of 2025, Moderna expects to cut costs by $1 billion compared to 2024.

Moderna reiterated its full-year 2025 product sales guidance of $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion, most of which will come in the second half of the year. Moderna expects only $200 million in sales to come in during the first half of the year due to seasonal demand for respiratory products, which typically rises in the fall and winter. 

The company slashed its 2025 sales guidance by roughly $1 billion in January, causing its shares to plummet. The stock is now down more than 20% for the year. 

At the time, Moderna pointed to increased competition in the Covid market, falling vaccination rates, timing around manufacturing contracts with a handful of countries and uncertainty around what advisors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would recommend for revaccination of respiratory syncytial virus shots. 

“Should those potential headwinds all hit, that’s what would bring us to the low end of our guidance,” Mock told CNBC, adding that the company is hoping to “combat” the challenges.

Here’s what Moderna reported for the fourth quarter that ended Dec. 31 compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

• Loss per share: $2.91 vs. an expected loss of $2.68
• Revenue: $966 million vs. $942.8 million expected

Moderna posted fourth-quarter sales of $966 million, less than half of the $2.8 billion it recorded during the same period a year ago. 

The vast majority of that total came from its Covid shot, which raked in $923 million, down 66% from the prior year. That includes $244 million in U.S. sales and $679 million from international markets. 

Analysts had expected the jab to pull in $909 million in sales for the quarter, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount. 

Moderna said the decrease was mainly due to the earlier launch of the newest iteration of its Covid shot last year, which shifted sales into the third quarter. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the new vaccine three weeks…