Moderna on Friday slashed its third-quarter revenue and earnings estimates and raised its outlook for full-year sales growth, as some of its newer products gained momentum and its Covid vaccine revenue outperformed.
Shares of Moderna rose about 3% in premarket trading on Friday.
The biotech company now expects 2026 revenue growth of 15% to 25%, up from its previous guidance of 10%.
“New products and geographic diversification are what led to a strong Q3,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in an interview ahead of the results.
Moderna facility in Laval, Quebec, Canada, September 19, 2025.
Graham Hughes Bloomberg Getty Images
For example, he said that the company sees a “one-year impact” from the next-generation Covid mRNA vaccine, which will receive US approval in May 2025. Bancel noted that Covid is a seasonal business and vaccine contracts are usually established in the first quarter, so Moderna’s shot only had a “small launch” to start last year.
Moderna’s new stand-alone flu shot, which was approved in the US in August, will also have a “limited launch” in the country in 2026 in time, he said.
In a separate interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Bancel said Moderna’s geographic expansion in Canada, the U.K. and Asia helped boost results. The company’s work to cut costs also led to profits in the quarter, he said.
“It’s stronger sales and lower costs,” Bancel said.
Here’s what Moderna reported for the third quarter compared to Wall Street expectations, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 38 cents per share vs. an expected loss of $1.25
- result: $1.31 billion vs $885.1 million expected
Moderna’s third-quarter revenue rose 29% to $1.31 billion, driven by higher sales of its Covid vaccine in international markets and helped by delivery on a long-term government partnership. Revenue was $780 million in the US and $533 million in international markets.
The company reported net income of $162 million, or 38 cents per share, for the third quarter. That compares with a net loss of $200 million, or a loss of 51 cents per share, reported for the year-ago period.
The results come weeks after Moderna and Merck announced promising late-stage data on an experimental personalized cancer vaccine combined with immunotherapy Keytruda in certain melanoma patients. Despite the positive results, investors hurt Moderna shares after parts of the data were leaked on social media days before investigators were set to present at a European medical conference.
Bancel called it a “surprising reaction,” but said the company is also seeing a positive response from others on Wall Street, including long-term investors and analysts who scrutinize the full data in depth. He added that doctors in the field were “surprised by the data,” and many said they hope to use it in their daily practice.
Moderna’s stock has skyrocketed more than 700% this year, largely on optimism about its potential for a takeover.