BioNTech doubled Wall Street's third-quarter profit expectations Monday and raised its full-year outlook for Covid vaccine sales, and BNTX stock rose, paring back early losses.
The company reported earnings of 6.98 euros per share on 3.46 billion euros in sales. Based on today's exchange rates, earnings were about $6.98 per share and sales came out to $3.46 billion. Both metrics handily beat expectations, according to FactSet.
Lee Brown, global sector lead for health care at research firm Third Bridge, says the year-over-year declines likely spooked investors in early trading. Sales and earnings both plummeted 43%. But BNTX stock analysts called for much steeper declines.
"Despite BioNTech revenue and earnings falling sharply year over year, the company still delivered a surprisingly strong quarter relative to expectations," he said in a report to clients. "As we move into a post-pandemic environment, we're keenly focused on BioNTech's evolution as the company advances its infectious disease portfolio and oncology pipeline."
On the stock market today, BNTX stock advanced 4.2% to 160.72. That pared from much deeper, double-digit declines in premarket trading.
BNTX Stock: Booster Demand Is Key
As of mid-October, BioNTech says it and have Pfizer have sold 300 million doses of their omicron-focused booster shots.
One targets BA.1, a sub-variant that's no longer circulating in the U.S. The second aims to block BA.4 and BA.5. While BA.4 accounts for just a fraction of U.S. cases, BA.5 still remains dominant, though cases caused by the newer BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are creeping higher.
As a result, BioNTech raised the low end of its full-year outlook. It now expects at least 16 billion euros in sales, up from 13 billion previously. The company still expects its Covid shot to top out at 17 billion euros in sales this year. That's roughly $15.98 billion to $16.97 billion in sales.
BNTX stock analysts forecast roughly 16 billion euros in sales.
Still, much of the outlook will depend on booster demand. Less than 10% of adults in the U.S. have gotten an updated booster shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of people age 65 and older, less than one quarter have sought the updated shots.
On Friday, Pfizer and BioNTech said the updated booster led to a fourfold increase in antibodies capable of handling BA.4 and BA.5 vs. the original shot in people age 55 and older. But they didn't provide the same comparison for people age 18-55, so the benefit for younger people is murky.
Follow Allison Gatlin on Twitter at @IBD_AGatlin.
