Novavax Inc. executives slashed their annual sales guidance in half on Monday while falling well short of financial expectations, sending shares down more than 30% in after-hours trading.
Novavax NVAX, -5.01% now forecasts total revenue of $2-2.3 billion for 2022, down from a previous target of $4-5 billion. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month approved the use of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine, which does not use the same technology as Pfizer Inc. PFE, +0.61% and Moderna Inc. MRNA, – 2.09%.
In an unsigned statement released separately from the financial results, Novavax executives said the adjustment was made “to reflect several evolving market dynamics.”
“We remain confident that our vaccine represents a strong additional choice,” executives said. “Our vaccine’s competitive product profile encompasses our vaccine’s efficacy, its well-tolerated safety profile, durability of protection, and ability to repel both current and future variant strains.”
“We are already making tremendous progress in the third quarter,” the statement continued. “We have shipped over 23 million doses since early July and while in some cases the delivery date may be pushed back to 2023, we do not expect aggregate contracted demand to change under most of our pre-sale contracts.”
For the second quarter, Novavax reported a loss of $510.5 million, or $6.53 per share, compared to a loss of $4.75 per share a year ago, on revenue of $185.9 million US dollars compared to US$ 298 million in the previous year. According to FactSet, analysts on average were expecting earnings of $5.54 per share on sales of $1.02 billion.
Shares closed down 5% at $57.25 and then plunged about 34% in after-hours trading. The stock is already down 60% this year, as is the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.12%, down 13%.