Rivian's Slamming on the Brakes, but This Vaccine Stock Is Falling Harder

The stock market was largely lower on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.06%) posting the biggest declines. Bad news from Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) weighed on investor sentiment, although drops in the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC -0.52%) and S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.22%) were a lot milder.

Data source: Yahoo! Finance.

Earnings season has largely come to an end, but there are still some high-profile companies that have been reporting their latest financial results. Rivian Automotive (RIVN 1.03%) moved sharply lower after the closing bell on Tuesday afternoon in light of some discouraging news from the electric vehicle manufacturer. However, a key vaccine stock posted even bigger declines amid concerns about its future. Read on to learn about Rivian and to find out which stock dropped further.

Rivian isn't getting its production into the fast lane

Shares of Rivian were down 8% in after-hours trading late Tuesday, reversing gains from earlier in the day. The EV maker showed progress as it continues to ramp up its operations, but the pace of growth wasn't what investors had wanted to see.

Rivian's fourth-quarter financial numbers were mixed. On the one hand, revenue jumped sharply, going from just $54 million in the year-ago quarter to $663 billion in the last three months of 2022. However, the costs of building those vehicles came in at 2.5 times the revenue, and when you add in other expenses, Rivian's net loss came in at $1.72 billion, or $1.87 per share. Similarly, free cash outflows got worse, climbing to $6.42 billion over the past 12 months.

What most Rivian shareholders focused on, though, was the company's 2023 outlook. The automaker said that supply chain issues would continue to be the limiting factor with respect to production capacity, and it projected total vehicle volume of 50,000 for the year, which was disappointingly low. Moreover, Rivian expects its gross margin to remain negative throughout the year, delaying the point at which the automaker will prove that it can actually make money with its EV concept.

As if that weren't enough, Rivian announced a recall of more than 12,700 of its vehicles due to a sensor issue. That won't help its efficiency, and EV stock investors are concerned that rising competition in the industry could leave Rivian behind.

Novavax doesn't look healthy

However, Rivian's losses were tiny compared to those of Novavax (NVAX). The vaccine maker's stock plunged 25% in after-hours trading after releasing its fourth-quarter financial report and expressing doubt about its ability to keep operating.

Novavax finally brought in revenue from product sales in 2022, but it wasn't enough to make up for its costs. Fourth-quarter revenue of $357 million was up more than 60% year over year, but even a sharp decline in research and development costs wasn't enough to make Novavax profitable. Losses weighed in at $182 million, or $2.28 per share.

But the real problem stemmed from Novavax's views on 2023. The vaccine maker will try to deliver updated COVID-19 vaccines to maximize its opportunities for sales. However, Novavax said that macroeconomic uncertainties as well as pending arbitration and questions about ongoing U.S. government funding raise what it called "substantial doubt" about its ability to continue as a going concern.

Investors in Novavax hoped that the company's vaccine program would be enough to match some of its rivals in the space. Unfortunately, its success came later than shareholders wanted, and it might now be too late for Novavax to cash in on the massive investments it made with vaccine development.