Moderna on Friday beat third-quarter revenue and profit estimates and raised its sales growth outlook for the full year, as some of its new products gain momentum and Covid vaccine revenue outperforms.
Moderna shares rose about 3% Friday in premarket trading.
The biotech company now expects revenue growth of 15% to 25% for 2026, up from its previous forecast of up to 10%.
“The new product and geographic diversification is what led to such a strong third quarter,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in an interview before the results were released.
The Moderna factory in Laval, Quebec, Canada, September 19, 2025.
Graham Hughes | Bloomberg | Getty Images
For example, he said the company is seeing “full-year impact” from its next-generation mRNA Covid vaccine, which won U.S. approval in May 2025. Bancel noted that Covid is a seasonal business and vaccine contracts are typically set in the first quarter, so Moderna’s vaccine only had a “small launch” to start last year.
Moderna’s new standalone flu vaccine, which was approved in the United States in August, will also have a “limited launch” in the country in 2026, given the timeline, he said.
In a separate interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Bancel said Moderna’s geographic expansion into Canada, the United Kingdom and Asia helped improve results. The company’s efforts to cut costs also generated a profit in the quarter, he added.
“It’s the sales that are stronger and the costs that are also lower,” Bancel said.
Here’s what Moderna reported for the third quarter compared to what Wall Street expected, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 38 cents per share versus an expected loss of $1.25
- Income: $1.31 billion versus $885.1 million expected
Moderna’s third-quarter revenue jumped 29% to $1.31 billion, boosted by higher sales of Covid vaccines in international markets and helped by deliveries under long-term government partnerships. Revenue was $780 million in the United States 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 to 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 unveiled promising late-stage data on their investigational personalized cancer vaccine in combination with immunotherapy Keytruda in some melanoma patients. Despite the positive results, investors pummeled Moderna’s stock after some of the data was leaked on social media just days before trial investigators were to present it at a European medical conference.
Bancel called it a “surprising reaction” but said the companies have also seen a positive response from others on Wall Street, including long-term investors and analysts who have looked at the data set in depth. He added that doctors in the field “have been very impressed with the data” and many have expressed hope of using it in their daily practice.
Moderna’s stock has soared more than 700% this year, largely on optimism about the shot’s potential.
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