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Shares of Moderna (MRNA.US) experienced a significant increase on Thursday as it reported a surprising profit and surpassed Wall Street’s quarterly forecasts. The Covid vaccine producer announced earnings of $0.55 per share on $2.8 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter, shattering FactSet analysts’ predictions of a $0.99 per share loss on $2.5 billion in sales. 

According to Chief Financial Officer Jamey Mock, this unexpected earnings result is partially due to a $600 million deferral in revenue. In a promising turn of events, Moderna continues to deliver on its pledge to trim its expenses. The expense for goods sold over the past year was noted to be $4.7 billion, undercutting the estimated figure of $5 billion. Nonetheless, the firm’s sales during the fourth quarter underwent a 45% reduction on a year-on-year basis, a dip largely attributed to the decreased sales of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine, as stated in Moderna’s press release. Correspondingly, the earnings also faced an 85% downfall. 

For the entire 2023, Moderna disclosed revenues of $6.8 billion, which is a 64% decrease when compared with the previous year, and a per-share loss of $12.33, a stark contrast to the $20.12 earnings per share registered in 2022. 

Moderna is currently seeking new opportunities by focusing on its mRNA technology for developing other pharmaceuticals, which include a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine that is ready to challenge vaccines from two leading competitors — Pfizer (PFE.US) and GSK (GSK.US). 

Moderna stock jumped 13.5% to 99.44, following earnings releases. As for prospects, Moderna reaffirmed its forecast of $4 billion in sales for 2024, accompanied by research and development costs amounting to $4.5 billion. 

(Moderna Stock Performance One-year Chart) 

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