Moderna lifts 2026 growth forecast after quarterly earnings beat

Revenue rose 29% year over year to $1.31 billion, compared with the $885.1 million analysts expected, according to an LSEG survey. Moderna reported earnings of 38 cents per share, against expectations for a loss of $1.25. Net income was $162 million, versus a net loss of $200 million, or 51 cents per share, in the same quarter a year earlier.

U.S. revenue totaled $780 million and international revenue was $533 million. Higher Covid vaccine sales in international markets and deliveries under long-term government partnerships supported the quarter. Bancel said Moderna is seeing the full-year impact of its next-generation mRNA Covid vaccine, which received U.S. approval in May 2025. Because Covid is seasonal and vaccine contracts are typically set in the first quarter, he said, the shot had only a small initial launch last year.

Moderna’s stand-alone flu vaccine, approved in the U.S. in August, is also expected to have a limited U.S. launch in 2026 because of timing, Bancel said. Shares rose about 5% in premarket trading Friday. The stock has gained more than 700% this year, largely on investor optimism about the company’s personalized cancer vaccine being developed with Merck.

The outlook increase follows recent late-stage data from Moderna and Merck on the experimental vaccine combined with Keytruda in certain melanoma patients. Investors had sold Moderna shares after some results leaked on social media days before investigators were due to present them at a European medical conference. Bancel called the market response “surprising,” while saying long-term investors and analysts who reviewed the full data responded positively. He also said doctors were impressed and hoped to use the treatment in practice.