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Moderna reported its first quarterly profit in two years, as the US biotech company rode momentum gained with positive results from its melanoma vaccine in August.
The Boston-based group said its net profit rose to $162 million in the third quarter, marking a turnaround from a loss of $200 million in the same period last year.
It’s the first quarterly profit for Moderna since 2024, continuing a streak of good news for the vaccine maker this year after the company languished in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A year ago, Moderna was the most shorted company in the S&P 500 index, hampered by the Trump administration’s hostility toward vaccines. It is now the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 over the past year. Moderna shares rose more than 6% Friday morning in New York and are now trading at their highest level since late 2021.
“It’s interesting to see how over the last 12 months — for those who still had a lot of doubts — Moderna’s platform is really coming to life in a wonderful way and I think this is just the beginning,” Moderna Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel said in an interview.
Moderna said stronger sales of Covid vaccines outside the United States helped increase its total quarterly revenue 29% from a year earlier, to $1.3 billion. Analysts said those international sales offset years of sluggish revenue in the United States.
While the company generates almost all of its revenue from Covid vaccines, it is expanding into cancer vaccines. In August, Moderna announced a successful trial of a landmark skin cancer vaccine it is developing with Merck. The vaccine is expected to gain U.S. regulatory approval and be sold to patients next year.
The news sent shares soaring 177 percent in a day, part of a dramatic short-selling squeeze as those who had bet against the vaccine maker closed their positions. However, shares lost ground in October after the release of additional details about the trial, which fell short of investors’ expectations for the vaccine’s commercial success.
Moderna joined the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 index in October after exiting at the end of 2024.
The company’s results come days after Republican opponents of its messenger RNA vaccines were defeated in the US midterm elections.
Iowa gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn had proposed banning the sale of Covid-19 mRNA vaccines in the state. But on Tuesday, he lost to his Democratic opponent as Republicans were in disarray across the country.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine skeptic who cut federal funding for mRNA as part of his Make America Healthy Again movement. campaigned for Lahn last week. Kennedy also campaigned for Republican candidates for Michigan governor and senator, both of whom lost on Tuesday.
Moderna’s success has been a boon for Boston-based investment group Fidelity, which has tripled its stake in Moderna since September 2025 and is now the biotech’s largest shareholder.
UK-based asset manager Baillie Gifford has reduced its stake in Moderna from 10% at the end of 2024 to around 4.5%, according to the most recent information. Baillie Gifford said in January that he was “frustrated” with Moderna’s management.
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