By Josh Nathan-Kazis

Moderna is due to report its second-quarter financial results on Friday ahead of the market open, a day after announcing plans to cut 10% of its staff as the company's cash hoard continues to shrink.

Moderna's second-quarter performance is largely beside the point. Everyone knows that sales of the company's Covid-19 vaccine have tanked. Instead, investors are focused on the big question looming over the stock: Can Moderna stop losing money before it runs out of cash?

Shares of the biotech have dropped 26.3% this year to $30.58. At its peak in August of 2021, the stock was trading at more than $480. The company had nearly $20 billion in cash as of early 2022, but it's been losing billions of dollars per year since 2023, when the market for its Covid-19 vaccine began to shrink dramatically.

Moderna said in May that it will have $6 billion in cash left at the end of this year, though analysts are doubtful: The FactSet consensus estimate is currently $3.9 billion.

The company's CEO, Stéphane Bancel, has insisted that the company will stop losing money in 2028, and won't need to raise more cash before then.

Investors will be watching Moderna's financial report Friday for signs as to whether that's achievable.

The staff reductions announced Thursday show the company is working on cost cuts. Moderna had said in May that it was cutting annual operating expenses by $1.5 billion by 2027. The staff reductions will bring its headcount below 5,000 employees by the end of the year.

"We see the ongoing restructuring effort as necessary to right-size the company's operational footprint to offset continued vaccine revenue decline," Leerink partners analyst Mani Foroohar wrote on Thursday.

Analysts expect Moderna to report sales of $113 million for the second quarter, according to FactSet, down from $241 million in 2024 and $4.7 billion in 2022. They expect a net loss on the quarter of $1.1 billion.

The FactSet consensus estimate has Moderna losing $2.96 per share in the second quarter. The company lost $3.33 per share in the same quarter last year.

Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at josh.nathan-kazis@barrons.com

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July 31, 2025 16:51 ET (20:51 GMT)

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