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Moderna (MRNA) Misses on Q4 Earnings, Eyes $18B in Vaccine Sales
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Moderna Inc (MRNA - Free Report) incurred loss of 69 cents per share for the fourth quarter of 2020, wider than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 25 cents and the year-ago loss of 37 cents. Loss widened year over year due to higher research & development costs to support clinical development, especially its coronavirus vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273.
Revenues in the quarter were $570.7 million, which comfortably beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $326.58 million. In the year-ago quarter, revenues were $14.1 million. The significant increase in revenues was driven by grants from an agreement with Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (“BARDA”) related to development of mRNA-1273 and product sales.
Moderna’s shares were up 4.1% in pre-market trading on Feb 25, following the earnings release. Shares of the company have surged 396.5% in the past year compared with the industry’s 11.5% increase.
Quarter in Details
In December, Moderna received approval for emergency use of its coronavirus vaccine, mRNA-1273. With this approval, the company got its first commercial product and recorded product revenues for the first time. The company received emergency use approval for mRNA-1273 in several other countries including European Union so far in 2021.
Product sales, entirely from COVID-19 vaccine, were $200 million during the quarter.
Grant revenues were $341.4 million compared with $3.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Please note that the company has received a funding commitment of up to $955 million from BARDA to develop its coronavirus vaccine candidate in 2021.
Collaboration revenues were $29.5 million, up 179.6% year over year. The company earns collaboration revenues from agreements with several big pharma/biotech companies including AstraZeneca (AZN - Free Report) , Merck (MRK - Free Report) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX - Free Report) .
Selling, general and administrative expenses were $79 million compared with $25.7 million in the year-ago quarter. The significant increase was primarily attributable to increased headcount and commercialization-related activities for mRNA-1273 vaccine.
Research & development expenses were $758.9 million compared with $118 million in the year-ago period. The rise was largely due to increased higher clinical development costs for mRNA-1273 and pre-launch inventory buildup prior to the emergency use authorization for the vaccine.
The company ended the quarter with $5.25 billion in cash and cash equivalents, compared with $3.97 billion as of Sep 30, 2020.
Full-Year Results
Moderna reported revenues of $803.4 million for 2020 compared with $60.2 million in 2019. The company incurred loss of $1.96 in 2020, wider than the year-ago loss of $1.55 per share.
Coronavirus Vaccine Update
On its fourth-quarter earnings call, Moderna stated that the company has supplied more than 32 million doses to the United States along with several million doses to other countries as well. The company opened eight commercial subsidiaries in countries including the United States, Canada and few European countries to support supply of COVID-19 vaccine. The company plans to open three more subsidiaries in Australia, Japan and South Korea in 2021. Meanwhile, the company raised the lower end of its global manufacturing target for 2021 from 600 million doses to 700 million doses. The company still plans to supply one billion doses in 2021 and expects to supply 1.4 billion doses in 2022. It has supply agreements worth several hundred million doses of mRNA-1273 with 11 countries and European Union.
The company has also started developing mRNA-1273 in new patient population. A phase II/III study evaluating it in adolescents has completed enrollment. The company plans to initiate a phase II study to evaluate the vaccine in pediatric population, who are aged 6 months to 11 years, soon.
Moderna has also completed manufacturing of its variant-specific vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273.351, to be used in clinical studies and sent doses to the National Institutes of Health to be evaluated in an early-stage study. The company is also developing mRNA-1283, a next-generation vaccine candidate against COVID-19. It is intended to be evaluated as a booster dose for previously vaccinated or infected individuals.
2021 Guidance
Moderna provided guidance for product sales in 2021. Considering the existing advance purchase agreements with different countries, the company anticipates product sales to be $18.4 billion in 2021. We note that Pfizer, which has also launched a mRNA based COVID-19 vaccine, expects approximately $15 billion from sales of its COVID-19 vaccine sales in 2021.
The company expects its operating expense to increase by low double-digit percentage points in the first quarter of 2021, compared with adjusted operating expense of approximately $0.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020.
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Moderna (MRNA) Misses on Q4 Earnings, Eyes $18B in Vaccine Sales
Moderna Inc (MRNA - Free Report) incurred loss of 69 cents per share for the fourth quarter of 2020, wider than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 25 cents and the year-ago loss of 37 cents. Loss widened year over year due to higher research & development costs to support clinical development, especially its coronavirus vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273.
Revenues in the quarter were $570.7 million, which comfortably beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $326.58 million. In the year-ago quarter, revenues were $14.1 million. The significant increase in revenues was driven by grants from an agreement with Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (“BARDA”) related to development of mRNA-1273 and product sales.
Moderna’s shares were up 4.1% in pre-market trading on Feb 25, following the earnings release. Shares of the company have surged 396.5% in the past year compared with the industry’s 11.5% increase.
Quarter in Details
In December, Moderna received approval for emergency use of its coronavirus vaccine, mRNA-1273. With this approval, the company got its first commercial product and recorded product revenues for the first time. The company received emergency use approval for mRNA-1273 in several other countries including European Union so far in 2021.
Product sales, entirely from COVID-19 vaccine, were $200 million during the quarter.
Grant revenues were $341.4 million compared with $3.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Please note that the company has received a funding commitment of up to $955 million from BARDA to develop its coronavirus vaccine candidate in 2021.
Collaboration revenues were $29.5 million, up 179.6% year over year. The company earns collaboration revenues from agreements with several big pharma/biotech companies including AstraZeneca (AZN - Free Report) , Merck (MRK - Free Report) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX - Free Report) .
Selling, general and administrative expenses were $79 million compared with $25.7 million in the year-ago quarter. The significant increase was primarily attributable to increased headcount and commercialization-related activities for mRNA-1273 vaccine.
Research & development expenses were $758.9 million compared with $118 million in the year-ago period. The rise was largely due to increased higher clinical development costs for mRNA-1273 and pre-launch inventory buildup prior to the emergency use authorization for the vaccine.
The company ended the quarter with $5.25 billion in cash and cash equivalents, compared with $3.97 billion as of Sep 30, 2020.
Full-Year Results
Moderna reported revenues of $803.4 million for 2020 compared with $60.2 million in 2019. The company incurred loss of $1.96 in 2020, wider than the year-ago loss of $1.55 per share.
Coronavirus Vaccine Update
On its fourth-quarter earnings call, Moderna stated that the company has supplied more than 32 million doses to the United States along with several million doses to other countries as well. The company opened eight commercial subsidiaries in countries including the United States, Canada and few European countries to support supply of COVID-19 vaccine. The company plans to open three more subsidiaries in Australia, Japan and South Korea in 2021. Meanwhile, the company raised the lower end of its global manufacturing target for 2021 from 600 million doses to 700 million doses. The company still plans to supply one billion doses in 2021 and expects to supply 1.4 billion doses in 2022. It has supply agreements worth several hundred million doses of mRNA-1273 with 11 countries and European Union.
The company has also started developing mRNA-1273 in new patient population. A phase II/III study evaluating it in adolescents has completed enrollment. The company plans to initiate a phase II study to evaluate the vaccine in pediatric population, who are aged 6 months to 11 years, soon.
Moderna has also completed manufacturing of its variant-specific vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273.351, to be used in clinical studies and sent doses to the National Institutes of Health to be evaluated in an early-stage study. The company is also developing mRNA-1283, a next-generation vaccine candidate against COVID-19. It is intended to be evaluated as a booster dose for previously vaccinated or infected individuals.
2021 Guidance
Moderna provided guidance for product sales in 2021. Considering the existing advance purchase agreements with different countries, the company anticipates product sales to be $18.4 billion in 2021. We note that Pfizer, which has also launched a mRNA based COVID-19 vaccine, expects approximately $15 billion from sales of its COVID-19 vaccine sales in 2021.
The company expects its operating expense to increase by low double-digit percentage points in the first quarter of 2021, compared with adjusted operating expense of approximately $0.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Moderna, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Moderna, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Moderna, Inc. Quote
Zacks Rank
Currently, Moderna sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!
It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 77 billion devices by 2025, creating a $1.3 trillion market.
Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 4 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2022.
Click here for the 4 trades >>