Moderna's 2Q earnings beat expectations, but it writes off $500 million in expiring Covid shots

Moderna on Wednesday reported second quarter results that beat earnings and revenue expectations driven $4.5 billion in sales from its Covid -19 vaccine, but it's still the company's only commercially available product and it took a big hit on expiring shots.

The Boston biotech company's costs rose to $1.4 billion, or 30% of the revenue generated from its vaccine. Moderna took a nearly $500 million hit on write-downs for vaccines that have expired or are expected to expire before they can be used.

Moderna also lost $184 million in vaccine purchase commitments and had $131 million in expenses for unused manufacturing capacity. These charges are due to substantial reductions in expected vaccine deliveries to Covax, an international alliance that purchases shots for poorer countries. Deliveries have also been deferred for major customers such as the European Union.

The Boston biotech company generated $4.7 billion in sales for the quarter, a 9% increase over the same period last year. Moderna maintained its 2022 Covid vaccine sales guidance of $21 billion.

Moderna posted adjusted earnings of $5.24 per share, an 18% drop from the second quarter of 2021. The company's net income came in at $2.2 billion, a 20% drop from the same period in 2021.

Moderna has a cash pile of $18 billion, and said it's going to buy back $3 billion of its shares with some of that money.

Here's how the company performed compared with what Wall Street expected, based on analysts' average estimates compiled by Refinitiv:

Moderna last week announced a $1.74 billion agreement with the U.S. to supply 66 million doses of its updated Covid vaccine that targets the omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. The agreement includes an option to purchase another 234 million doses.