What happened
Shares of Moderna (MRNA -2.45%) have soared today, up by 19% as of 12:45 p.m. EST, after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings results. The biotech missed revenue expectations but investors were excited that it has shipped its first batch of a vaccine for the coronavirus.
So what
Revenue in the fourth quarter declined to $14.1 million, shy of the $17.4 million in sales that analysts were expecting. That resulted in a net loss of $124.2 million, or $0.37 per share, which was better than the consensus estimate of $0.42 per share in red ink. Moderna has shipped its clinical-grade batch of the novel coronavirus vaccine to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for use in a phase 1 study in the U.S.
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"The Moderna team continues to execute our strategy, including our CMV Phase 2 study enrolling ahead of plan, shipping the coronavirus Phase 1 clinical materials to NIH/NIAID in just 42 days, and announcing five new development candidates in the last two months," CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement. "We have up to $2 billion of capital to invest in the Company, a great team, a powerful mRNA platform and a state-of-the-art manufacturing site. I am more energized than ever about our future."
Now what
Moderna raised $550 million through a secondary equity offering earlier this month, with underwriters exercising options to purchase additional shares. In addition to grant funding and nearly $1.3 billion in cash on the balance sheet as of the end of 2019, the biotech company has access to $2 billion in capital.
For 2020, Moderna expects to spend roughly the same amount of cash -- between $490 million and $510 million -- on operating activities and capital expenditures as it did in 2019.
