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2021-08-10

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Moderna Is A Winner In COVID-19 Vaccines, But What's Next?

Investment Thesis Moderna (MRNA) and Novavax (NVAX) released their respective Q2 earnings one after

Moderna Is A Winner In COVID-19 Vaccines, But What's Next?

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{"i18n":{"language":"zh_CN"},"data":{"magic":2,"id":896643687,"tweetId":"896643687","gmtCreate":1628581180949,"gmtModify":1633745991431,"author":{"id":3576410555567456,"idStr":"3576410555567456","authorId":3576410555567456,"authorIdStr":"3576410555567456","name":"nivlac","avatar":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/20f49098bcdb5db4fdcfb746b729245d","vip":1,"userType":1,"introduction":"","boolIsFan":false,"boolIsHead":false,"crmLevel":11,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"individualDisplayBadges":[],"fanSize":2,"starInvestorFlag":false},"themes":[],"images":[],"coverImages":[],"extraTitle":"","html":"<html><head></head><body>Will drop soon</body></html>","htmlText":"<html><head></head><body>Will drop soon</body></html>","text":"Will drop soon","highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":0,"link":"https://laohu8.com/post/896643687","repostId":1109397612,"repostType":4,"repost":{"id":"1109397612","kind":"news","pubTimestamp":1628578754,"share":"https://www.laohu8.com/m/news/1109397612?lang=&edition=full","pubTime":"2021-08-10 14:59","market":"hk","language":"en","title":"Moderna Is A Winner In COVID-19 Vaccines, But What's Next?","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1109397612","media":"seeking alpha","summary":"Investment Thesis\nModerna (MRNA) and Novavax (NVAX) released their respective Q2 earnings one after ","content":"Investment Thesis\nModerna (MRNA) and <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/NVAX\">Novavax</a> (NVAX) released their respective <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/QTWO\">Q2</a> earnings <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/AONE.U\">one</a> after the other, with Moderna indicating encouraging progress in its mRNA vaccine programs along with its COVID-19 vaccine production ramp. At the same time, Novavax surprised the market with its delay in filing for emergency use authorization ((EUA)) with the US government ((USG)).\nModerna has continued to make excellent momentum as the company took full advantage of a highly successful COVID-19 vaccine program to develop the other vaccines in other therapeutic areas to future-proof its revenue sustainability, as the world gradually moves on to a world where COVID-19 is endemic.\nThis article provides a timely update for our readers to decide whether Moderna is still a good investment given the recent run-up that we think has resulted in a high amount of optimism being baked into its price.\nQ2 Earnings Recap\nModerna quarterly revenue surprise. Source: Seeking Alpha Premium\nModerna quarterly EPS surprise. Source: Seeking Alpha Premium\nModerna reported a solid Q2 report card, keeping in line with the momentum from Q1, as the company posted revenue of $4.354B and EPS of $6.46, which were 10.3% and 2.8% above the consensus estimates.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/727827b49e82cf15b729bc1d2efd38fa\" tg-width=\"600\" tg-height=\"371\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Moderna H1'21 revenue and FY21 consensus estimate. Data source: S&amp;P Capital IQ\nImportantly, Moderna posted a highly impressive QoQ increase of 125% in revenue from $1.94B in Q1'21 to $4.35B in Q2'21. However, Moderna would need to significantly ramp up in H2'21 for the company to meet the Street's FY21 estimates as H1'21's revenue of $6.29B accounted for only 31.2% of the FY21 consensus estimates.\nTo that, Moderna has assured investors that based on the company's signed advanced purchase agreements ((APA)) for FY21, Moderna indicated that \"expected delivery in 2021reflect the current full-year total of approximately $20 billion in anticipated product sales.\" The company continues to anticipate a supply of at least 800M to 1B doses for 2021.\nStudying Moderna's Gross Margins and Pricing Strategy\nModerna quarterly gross margin. Data source: S&amp;P Capital IQ\nThe production ramp in Q2'21 has also improved Moderna's economies of scale as its gross margin improved markedly in Q2'21, as Moderna's total cost of revenue represents about 26.9% of Q2'21 revenue.\nCrucially, Moderna has indicated that its COVID-19H1'21's product salesof $5.93B which constitute about 94.3% of H1'21's total revenue, has a much lower cost of revenue. Based on our findings, Moderna's COVID-19 product sales have a cost of revenue of $1.1B, representing about 18.5% of H1'21's COVID-19 product revenue, therefore indicating that the average gross margin for its COVID-19 product is about 81.5%. The company has also emphasized that it \"expects the average cost total of sales as a percent of product sales to be between 18% and 20% compared to our previous outlook of approximately 20% of product sales. This reflects the successful ramp-up of this global manufacturing network.\"\nSince Moderna delivered 199M doses in Q2'21 and 102M doses in Q1'21, the company delivered a collective amount of 301M doses in H1'21 that was recognized as product revenue. Given that our cost of revenue is about $1.1B for H1'21, we could thus derive an average cost per dose of about $3.65, which the company has highlighted that it expects to maintain for the rest of 2021.\nBefore we carry on, Moderna has highlighted that the cost of sales that the company reflected in H1'21 of $943M included their \"zero-cost COVID-19 inventory,\" as the company emphasized: \"At the end of the first quarter of 2021, we had substantially utilized our zero-cost COVID-19 vaccine inventory. Therefore, if inventory sold for the six months ended June 30, 2021, were valued at cost, our cost of sales for the period would have been $1.1 billion.\" Therefore, based on our computation above, we believe it's important to reflect the cost of sales more accurately, which the company also corroborates in their earnings call.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/28b81eba2e15387ebf431cce2b895aba\" tg-width=\"600\" tg-height=\"371\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Moderna Spikevax pricing tiers. Data source: Moderna\nModerna adopts a tiered pricing model to distribute its vaccines equitably. For the USG, the company has applied a \"favorable\" pricing model because of the US government's funding as well as the 500M doses order that the USG committed to Moderna, which the company emphasized, \"is very large.\"\nThe other higher-income countries paid between $32 and $37, including larger orders from countries that include the EU with an APA of260M dosesfor 2021. Thus, applying Moderna's large contract discount logic, we should expect the average EU pricing to be at the lower end of the $32 to $37 range.\nFor the lower to middle-income countries, even though the company did not explicitly disclose the exact price range, the company highlighted that this category \"received the lowest-tiered pricing, including those sales to COVAX, which are considerably lower than the price to the U.S. government.\"\nFor Moderna, we could easily derive its average price at about $19.7 ($5.93B/301M) per dose for H1'21, even though the company has emphasized that it's likely to be reduced moving into 2022 as they ramp the production for delivery to COVAX as well as the lower and middle-income countries, especially since the COVAX APA is set to increase from 34M doses in 2021 to 117M doses in 2022, with an option to increase up to 350M doses.\nCOVAX reported an average price of about$5.20 per dose; thus, it would be useful for investors to continue monitoring the impact on the average price for mRNA-1273 moving forward. Moderna has also indicated that it is expecting more price competition as we move from a pandemic towards a world where COVID-19 is endemic. In addition, it may also be useful to watch closely for further improvement in its economies of scale as the company ramps production from an estimated 800M to 1B doses in 2021 to 2B to 3B doses in 2022.\nModerna's Strategy Moving <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/FORD\">Forward</a>\nShare of the population fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Source: OWID\nIt's straightforward that Moderna has ramped production significantly to compete for the next phase in COVID-19 distribution for its mRNA-1273 product for countries within the COVAX category in 2022 and 2023 as the high-income countries are starting to approach the 60% to 70% fully vaccinated mark. However, we could clearly glean from the chart above where only 15% of the total world population has been fully vaccinated, while countries like Indonesia and India have only 8% and 7.8% of their population fully inoculated, and South America's 20.9% still has a long way to go as well.\nMoving forward, the strategy for the high-income countries is starting to move towards booster shots. We think this is where Moderna, as one of the 2 mRNA vaccines makers, has sufficiently proven its worth against <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/PFE\">Pfizer</a>-BioNTech as the company's recent COVE study demonstrated that mRNA-1273 could maintain the efficacy of 93.2%, 4 to 6 months after the second dose, and a 98.2% efficacy against severe disease, as well as a 100% efficacy against death caused by COVID-19. As compared to Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine, where the efficacy is expected to drop to84%after 6 months, we would clearly applaud the breathtaking results that clearly demonstrate the superiority of Moderna's Spikevax against Comirnaty.\nTo this Moderna Co-founder and Chairman Dr. Noubar Afeyan clearly articulated who he thinks owns the superior mRNA technology for COVID-19 vaccine in the market (shout-out to Pfizer-BioNTech folks):\n<blockquote>\n We set outto develop the most effective vaccine against this virus that would last for the longest possible time, [helping] the largest number of people to be safe...And this is the first time we had data that at least showed that six months after the initial vaccinations were seeing essentially the same level of protection, which is very encouraging.\n</blockquote>\nModerna also emphasized that we should never underestimate the efficacy differences as just plain numbers, which in Moderna's and Pfizer-BioNTech's case amounted to 9.2% points. The company emphasized that:\n<blockquote>\n The relative strength of the different vaccines suggested that small differences in efficacy would start to emerge to be larger differences in efficacy at about 200, 250 days as neutralizing antibody titers waned. And that may be what we're starting to see. And if you play that forward, if you assume [Professor Davenport of the University of <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/NGD\">New</a> South Wales, Australia] been right about those predictions, then that picture continues and continues through a year with continued declining neutralizing antibody titers over that time. And eventually, we therefore believe, a real increase in breakthrough infections and disease even with vaccinated participants, even with mRNA-1273.\n</blockquote>\nModerna has also presented clear findings where it expects that a booster shot would significantly increase the neutralizing titers. In contrast, without the booster, for test subjects 6 to 8 months after their second dose, the neutralizing titers have dropped so significantly that for the Beta, Gamma and Delta variants, the \"neutralizing titers had fallen below the detectable -- the level of detection of the assay for a decent number of participants in all 4 -- all 3 cases.\"\nAs a result, we expect Moderna has strongly assembled the case for a booster with strong evidence suggesting their importance to protect against the new potential variants that may emerge, which Moderna has certainly warned: \"...It seems logical to us that those 3 mutations present in the Beta, Gamma line and those 2 mutations present in the Delta might find some way to combine in new and potentially scary ways. And if that came with the increased transmissibility, [the] force of infection that Delta can achieve, that might be a significant threat. And so we view our multivalent platform as the best place for us to try and anticipate that threat.\"\nThe company is developing a \"proactive\" multivalent platform where it combines \"different variants into a single vaccine\" as its strategy to combat potential variants that are expected to emerge. Based on the company's assays study, this platform clearly outperformed the other candidates in its study. In addition, it stood out as a strong candidate to be used as a booster option, even though the primary mRNA-1273 candidate can also be used effectively as a booster.\nHowever, in a fast-evolving situation with COVID-19, we think having more efficacious options are only going to be beneficial as vaccine makers try to anticipate and are proactive against potential new and more potent antigens where Moderna even admitted that the Delta variant had humbled them, as it added: \"I think the Delta variant has taught us to also be incredibly humble in the face of the virus' ability to fight back and increase its transmission. I mean, I think most of us would have thought SARS-CoV-2 was a pretty good infector earlier this year. Delta has shown us that it can make huge steps forward.\"\nRisks to our Thesis\nBy now, it should be clear that 2022 is promising to be a year where Moderna would almost double or triple its supply to 2B or 3B doses, depending on whether the company is using 100 micrograms or 50 micrograms in its product moving forward. Pfizer-BioNTech is also expected to increase its capacity to 3B doses in 2022, while we also need to take into account Novavax's impending entry into the COVID-19 vaccines production game, as well as the Chinese vaccine makers who already have an annual capacity of 5B doses.\nWe think there is a realistic chance where Moderna may be facing an over-supply situation even though it may have proven itself to be the superior mRNA vaccine for now against Pfizer-BioNTech.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/3b54cee9edb8e398275290f3edcdb770\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"353\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Revenue forecast mean consensus. Data source: S&amp;P Capital IQ\nTherefore, we think the Street has prudently lowered its revenue estimates for Moderna over the next few years. The company is also likely to come under pricing pressure against the huge supply expected to come online.\nHowever, we think Moderna is keenly aware of it. The company clearly highlighted that they had made good progress in the other 5 therapeutic areas that the company is involved in. Of notable mention is the fast track designation the company recently received from the US FDA for the company'sRSV vaccine candidate, mRNA-1345, especially when there is no approved RSV vaccine yet in the market.\nIn addition, the company has also commenced on the Phase I/II study of its mRNA-1010 quadrivalent seasonal flu vaccine to target the seasonal flu market, where it's worth about $5B to $6B annually, according to Moderna's estimates, especially when the current flu vaccine efficacy is between 40% and 60% according toCDC data. Moderna expects its quadrivalent vaccine to be launched as early as 2023.\nModerna is also expecting good results from its CMV vaccine, which is expected to be entering Phase III trials soon. It would also allow the company to tap into a market worth between $2B and $5B annually.\nHence, we think that the company has been proactively working on the success of its mRNA-1273 to progress confidently along the other programs to sustain its commercial success beyond just being a COVID-19 vaccine maker. Therefore, we encourage investors to monitor its most advanced programs closely and keep pace with them moving forward.\nValuations\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/69cb54a8282012f6cff4095f28e2a08f\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"176\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Biotech peers valuation comp set. Source: TIKR\nEV / Fwd Rev trend. Data source: S&amp;P Capital IQ\nModerna is currently trading at an EV / Fwd Rev of about 8x, which interestingly comes in below its peers' mean multiple of 14.14x, where Moderna may look to be attractively valued. However, this assumes that Moderna can keep increasing its revenue strongly over the next few years, a point that we have raised previously may face significant headwinds ahead.\nImportantly, we could see that based on the company's expected revenue moving forward, the company is not likely to see meaningful progress on its capital appreciation potential moving forward as its revenue multiple by the end of FY25 is expected to be about 14.6x, which is in line with the peers' mean multiple right now.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/a4cc567a1361ba17617927c47a803418\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"476\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Street's mean price target. Source: TIKR\nMoreover, the Street is also not optimistic on MRNA making meaningful headway from here, and in fact, values the stock at about a 5.2x implied EV / Fwd Rev multiple, at a 35% discount from the last closing price. Analysts from <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/OPY\">Oppenheimer</a> also emphasized that \"MRNA sharesare fairly pricing a tremendous amount of future recurring revenues and pipeline progress...[arguing] that the company’s non-COVID pipeline remains 2-3 years away from reaching commercial success.\"\nOur opinion is in line with the Street, and we think that a lot of optimism is currently being priced into Moderna at the moment. So we think if investors are sitting on decent profits right now, we strongly encourage you to at least take partial profits and take some risk off the table.\nPrice Action and Trend Analysis<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/766a37b6357b74ea899bd0e823ff64a2\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"391\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Source: TradingView\nWhile we are clear about MRNA's long-term uptrend bias (which is why we don't recommend a short-sell strategy against stocks with clear uptrend bias), we also think the stock's price action has recently shown signs of a climax top pattern.\nHowever, it's impossible to speculate exactly where the top is. Therefore, we think it's prudent for investors to take some profits off the table and wait for the euphoria to chill and cool down before considering adding exposure to MRNA again.\nWe have already taken the opportunity of the stock's recent strength to lock in 50% of our profit on MRNA, with a view of locking in even more if we continue to see price action that shows a higher climax top tendency moving forward.","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Moderna Is A Winner In COVID-19 Vaccines, But What's Next?</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nModerna Is A Winner In COVID-19 Vaccines, But What's Next?\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2021-08-10 14:59 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://seekingalpha.com/article/4447049-moderna-what-is-next-beyond-covid-vaccine-win>seeking alpha</a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\nInvestment Thesis\nModerna (MRNA) and Novavax (NVAX) released their respective Q2 earnings one after the other, with Moderna indicating encouraging progress in its mRNA vaccine programs along with its ...\n\n<a href=\"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4447049-moderna-what-is-next-beyond-covid-vaccine-win\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"MRNA":"Moderna, Inc."},"source_url":"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4447049-moderna-what-is-next-beyond-covid-vaccine-win","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1109397612","content_text":"Investment Thesis\nModerna (MRNA) and Novavax (NVAX) released their respective Q2 earnings one after the other, with Moderna indicating encouraging progress in its mRNA vaccine programs along with its COVID-19 vaccine production ramp. At the same time, Novavax surprised the market with its delay in filing for emergency use authorization ((EUA)) with the US government ((USG)).\nModerna has continued to make excellent momentum as the company took full advantage of a highly successful COVID-19 vaccine program to develop the other vaccines in other therapeutic areas to future-proof its revenue sustainability, as the world gradually moves on to a world where COVID-19 is endemic.\nThis article provides a timely update for our readers to decide whether Moderna is still a good investment given the recent run-up that we think has resulted in a high amount of optimism being baked into its price.\nQ2 Earnings Recap\nModerna quarterly revenue surprise. Source: Seeking Alpha Premium\nModerna quarterly EPS surprise. Source: Seeking Alpha Premium\nModerna reported a solid Q2 report card, keeping in line with the momentum from Q1, as the company posted revenue of $4.354B and EPS of $6.46, which were 10.3% and 2.8% above the consensus estimates.\nModerna H1'21 revenue and FY21 consensus estimate. Data source: S&P Capital IQ\nImportantly, Moderna posted a highly impressive QoQ increase of 125% in revenue from $1.94B in Q1'21 to $4.35B in Q2'21. However, Moderna would need to significantly ramp up in H2'21 for the company to meet the Street's FY21 estimates as H1'21's revenue of $6.29B accounted for only 31.2% of the FY21 consensus estimates.\nTo that, Moderna has assured investors that based on the company's signed advanced purchase agreements ((APA)) for FY21, Moderna indicated that \"expected delivery in 2021reflect the current full-year total of approximately $20 billion in anticipated product sales.\" The company continues to anticipate a supply of at least 800M to 1B doses for 2021.\nStudying Moderna's Gross Margins and Pricing Strategy\nModerna quarterly gross margin. Data source: S&P Capital IQ\nThe production ramp in Q2'21 has also improved Moderna's economies of scale as its gross margin improved markedly in Q2'21, as Moderna's total cost of revenue represents about 26.9% of Q2'21 revenue.\nCrucially, Moderna has indicated that its COVID-19H1'21's product salesof $5.93B which constitute about 94.3% of H1'21's total revenue, has a much lower cost of revenue. Based on our findings, Moderna's COVID-19 product sales have a cost of revenue of $1.1B, representing about 18.5% of H1'21's COVID-19 product revenue, therefore indicating that the average gross margin for its COVID-19 product is about 81.5%. The company has also emphasized that it \"expects the average cost total of sales as a percent of product sales to be between 18% and 20% compared to our previous outlook of approximately 20% of product sales. This reflects the successful ramp-up of this global manufacturing network.\"\nSince Moderna delivered 199M doses in Q2'21 and 102M doses in Q1'21, the company delivered a collective amount of 301M doses in H1'21 that was recognized as product revenue. Given that our cost of revenue is about $1.1B for H1'21, we could thus derive an average cost per dose of about $3.65, which the company has highlighted that it expects to maintain for the rest of 2021.\nBefore we carry on, Moderna has highlighted that the cost of sales that the company reflected in H1'21 of $943M included their \"zero-cost COVID-19 inventory,\" as the company emphasized: \"At the end of the first quarter of 2021, we had substantially utilized our zero-cost COVID-19 vaccine inventory. Therefore, if inventory sold for the six months ended June 30, 2021, were valued at cost, our cost of sales for the period would have been $1.1 billion.\" Therefore, based on our computation above, we believe it's important to reflect the cost of sales more accurately, which the company also corroborates in their earnings call.\nModerna Spikevax pricing tiers. Data source: Moderna\nModerna adopts a tiered pricing model to distribute its vaccines equitably. For the USG, the company has applied a \"favorable\" pricing model because of the US government's funding as well as the 500M doses order that the USG committed to Moderna, which the company emphasized, \"is very large.\"\nThe other higher-income countries paid between $32 and $37, including larger orders from countries that include the EU with an APA of260M dosesfor 2021. Thus, applying Moderna's large contract discount logic, we should expect the average EU pricing to be at the lower end of the $32 to $37 range.\nFor the lower to middle-income countries, even though the company did not explicitly disclose the exact price range, the company highlighted that this category \"received the lowest-tiered pricing, including those sales to COVAX, which are considerably lower than the price to the U.S. government.\"\nFor Moderna, we could easily derive its average price at about $19.7 ($5.93B/301M) per dose for H1'21, even though the company has emphasized that it's likely to be reduced moving into 2022 as they ramp the production for delivery to COVAX as well as the lower and middle-income countries, especially since the COVAX APA is set to increase from 34M doses in 2021 to 117M doses in 2022, with an option to increase up to 350M doses.\nCOVAX reported an average price of about$5.20 per dose; thus, it would be useful for investors to continue monitoring the impact on the average price for mRNA-1273 moving forward. Moderna has also indicated that it is expecting more price competition as we move from a pandemic towards a world where COVID-19 is endemic. In addition, it may also be useful to watch closely for further improvement in its economies of scale as the company ramps production from an estimated 800M to 1B doses in 2021 to 2B to 3B doses in 2022.\nModerna's Strategy Moving Forward\nShare of the population fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Source: OWID\nIt's straightforward that Moderna has ramped production significantly to compete for the next phase in COVID-19 distribution for its mRNA-1273 product for countries within the COVAX category in 2022 and 2023 as the high-income countries are starting to approach the 60% to 70% fully vaccinated mark. However, we could clearly glean from the chart above where only 15% of the total world population has been fully vaccinated, while countries like Indonesia and India have only 8% and 7.8% of their population fully inoculated, and South America's 20.9% still has a long way to go as well.\nMoving forward, the strategy for the high-income countries is starting to move towards booster shots. We think this is where Moderna, as one of the 2 mRNA vaccines makers, has sufficiently proven its worth against Pfizer-BioNTech as the company's recent COVE study demonstrated that mRNA-1273 could maintain the efficacy of 93.2%, 4 to 6 months after the second dose, and a 98.2% efficacy against severe disease, as well as a 100% efficacy against death caused by COVID-19. As compared to Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine, where the efficacy is expected to drop to84%after 6 months, we would clearly applaud the breathtaking results that clearly demonstrate the superiority of Moderna's Spikevax against Comirnaty.\nTo this Moderna Co-founder and Chairman Dr. Noubar Afeyan clearly articulated who he thinks owns the superior mRNA technology for COVID-19 vaccine in the market (shout-out to Pfizer-BioNTech folks):\n\n We set outto develop the most effective vaccine against this virus that would last for the longest possible time, [helping] the largest number of people to be safe...And this is the first time we had data that at least showed that six months after the initial vaccinations were seeing essentially the same level of protection, which is very encouraging.\n\nModerna also emphasized that we should never underestimate the efficacy differences as just plain numbers, which in Moderna's and Pfizer-BioNTech's case amounted to 9.2% points. The company emphasized that:\n\n The relative strength of the different vaccines suggested that small differences in efficacy would start to emerge to be larger differences in efficacy at about 200, 250 days as neutralizing antibody titers waned. And that may be what we're starting to see. And if you play that forward, if you assume [Professor Davenport of the University of New South Wales, Australia] been right about those predictions, then that picture continues and continues through a year with continued declining neutralizing antibody titers over that time. And eventually, we therefore believe, a real increase in breakthrough infections and disease even with vaccinated participants, even with mRNA-1273.\n\nModerna has also presented clear findings where it expects that a booster shot would significantly increase the neutralizing titers. In contrast, without the booster, for test subjects 6 to 8 months after their second dose, the neutralizing titers have dropped so significantly that for the Beta, Gamma and Delta variants, the \"neutralizing titers had fallen below the detectable -- the level of detection of the assay for a decent number of participants in all 4 -- all 3 cases.\"\nAs a result, we expect Moderna has strongly assembled the case for a booster with strong evidence suggesting their importance to protect against the new potential variants that may emerge, which Moderna has certainly warned: \"...It seems logical to us that those 3 mutations present in the Beta, Gamma line and those 2 mutations present in the Delta might find some way to combine in new and potentially scary ways. And if that came with the increased transmissibility, [the] force of infection that Delta can achieve, that might be a significant threat. And so we view our multivalent platform as the best place for us to try and anticipate that threat.\"\nThe company is developing a \"proactive\" multivalent platform where it combines \"different variants into a single vaccine\" as its strategy to combat potential variants that are expected to emerge. Based on the company's assays study, this platform clearly outperformed the other candidates in its study. In addition, it stood out as a strong candidate to be used as a booster option, even though the primary mRNA-1273 candidate can also be used effectively as a booster.\nHowever, in a fast-evolving situation with COVID-19, we think having more efficacious options are only going to be beneficial as vaccine makers try to anticipate and are proactive against potential new and more potent antigens where Moderna even admitted that the Delta variant had humbled them, as it added: \"I think the Delta variant has taught us to also be incredibly humble in the face of the virus' ability to fight back and increase its transmission. I mean, I think most of us would have thought SARS-CoV-2 was a pretty good infector earlier this year. Delta has shown us that it can make huge steps forward.\"\nRisks to our Thesis\nBy now, it should be clear that 2022 is promising to be a year where Moderna would almost double or triple its supply to 2B or 3B doses, depending on whether the company is using 100 micrograms or 50 micrograms in its product moving forward. Pfizer-BioNTech is also expected to increase its capacity to 3B doses in 2022, while we also need to take into account Novavax's impending entry into the COVID-19 vaccines production game, as well as the Chinese vaccine makers who already have an annual capacity of 5B doses.\nWe think there is a realistic chance where Moderna may be facing an over-supply situation even though it may have proven itself to be the superior mRNA vaccine for now against Pfizer-BioNTech.\nRevenue forecast mean consensus. Data source: S&P Capital IQ\nTherefore, we think the Street has prudently lowered its revenue estimates for Moderna over the next few years. The company is also likely to come under pricing pressure against the huge supply expected to come online.\nHowever, we think Moderna is keenly aware of it. The company clearly highlighted that they had made good progress in the other 5 therapeutic areas that the company is involved in. Of notable mention is the fast track designation the company recently received from the US FDA for the company'sRSV vaccine candidate, mRNA-1345, especially when there is no approved RSV vaccine yet in the market.\nIn addition, the company has also commenced on the Phase I/II study of its mRNA-1010 quadrivalent seasonal flu vaccine to target the seasonal flu market, where it's worth about $5B to $6B annually, according to Moderna's estimates, especially when the current flu vaccine efficacy is between 40% and 60% according toCDC data. Moderna expects its quadrivalent vaccine to be launched as early as 2023.\nModerna is also expecting good results from its CMV vaccine, which is expected to be entering Phase III trials soon. It would also allow the company to tap into a market worth between $2B and $5B annually.\nHence, we think that the company has been proactively working on the success of its mRNA-1273 to progress confidently along the other programs to sustain its commercial success beyond just being a COVID-19 vaccine maker. Therefore, we encourage investors to monitor its most advanced programs closely and keep pace with them moving forward.\nValuations\nBiotech peers valuation comp set. Source: TIKR\nEV / Fwd Rev trend. Data source: S&P Capital IQ\nModerna is currently trading at an EV / Fwd Rev of about 8x, which interestingly comes in below its peers' mean multiple of 14.14x, where Moderna may look to be attractively valued. However, this assumes that Moderna can keep increasing its revenue strongly over the next few years, a point that we have raised previously may face significant headwinds ahead.\nImportantly, we could see that based on the company's expected revenue moving forward, the company is not likely to see meaningful progress on its capital appreciation potential moving forward as its revenue multiple by the end of FY25 is expected to be about 14.6x, which is in line with the peers' mean multiple right now.\nStreet's mean price target. Source: TIKR\nMoreover, the Street is also not optimistic on MRNA making meaningful headway from here, and in fact, values the stock at about a 5.2x implied EV / Fwd Rev multiple, at a 35% discount from the last closing price. Analysts from Oppenheimer also emphasized that \"MRNA sharesare fairly pricing a tremendous amount of future recurring revenues and pipeline progress...[arguing] that the company’s non-COVID pipeline remains 2-3 years away from reaching commercial success.\"\nOur opinion is in line with the Street, and we think that a lot of optimism is currently being priced into Moderna at the moment. So we think if investors are sitting on decent profits right now, we strongly encourage you to at least take partial profits and take some risk off the table.\nPrice Action and Trend AnalysisSource: TradingView\nWhile we are clear about MRNA's long-term uptrend bias (which is why we don't recommend a short-sell strategy against stocks with clear uptrend bias), we also think the stock's price action has recently shown signs of a climax top pattern.\nHowever, it's impossible to speculate exactly where the top is. Therefore, we think it's prudent for investors to take some profits off the table and wait for the euphoria to chill and cool down before considering adding exposure to MRNA again.\nWe have already taken the opportunity of the stock's recent strength to lock in 50% of our profit on MRNA, with a view of locking in even more if we continue to see price action that shows a higher climax top tendency moving forward.","news_type":1,"symbols_score_info":{"MRNA":0.9}},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":1049,"commentLimit":10,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false,"reportStatus":false,"symbols":[],"verified":2,"subType":0,"readableState":1,"langContent":"EN","currentLanguage":"EN","warmUpFlag":false,"orderFlag":false,"shareable":true,"causeOfNotShareable":"","featuresForAnalytics":[],"commentAndTweetFlag":false,"andRepostAutoSelectedFlag":false,"upFlag":false,"length":12,"xxTargetLangEnum":"ORIG"},"commentList":[],"hasMoreComment":false,"orderType":2}