What happened
Investors don't seem to be very confident about Novavax's (NVAX 3.54%) performance in the closing months of 2022. After market hours on Tuesday, the vaccine specialist set the date for its fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 earnings release, and the news wasn't greeted warmly. On Wednesday, Novavax's share price took a more than 3% hit, while the S&P 500 index slipped by only 0.2%.
So what
Novavax will publish those quarterly and annual results next Tuesday, Feb. 28, after market close. This will be accompanied by a conference call to discuss the vaccine maker's performance.
It's not that investors are necessarily anticipating a disaster or overly grim and surprising news. It could be more a matter of landing some distance from profitability. On average, the clutch of analysts tracking Novavax stock are estimating that the company will post a net loss of $0.92 per share, according to data compiled by Yahoo! Finance.
Yet that would represent an improvement. In the same period the previous year, Novavax booked a breathtakingly deep deficit of $11.18 per share. Meanwhile, revenue for the fourth quarter of 2022 is anticipated to be just over $383 million, which would be considerably higher than the year-ago $222 million.
Now what
Novavax has certainly had its successes, but it's having difficulty shaking its reputation as the laggard in the coronavirus vaccine race.
Its Nuvaxovid jab won Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration in July 2022, well after competing shots received the green light and were in wide distribution. One recent setback -- the cancellation of the bulk of a massive Nuvaxovid order in Japan -- hasn't helped.
