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Undoubtedly, Pfizer PFE, Moderna MRNA, and AstraZeneca AZN were heroes in the stock market and in a literal sense to society with the prompt emergence of their COVID-19 vaccines that helped curtail the pandemic.

However, their stocks are a far cry from their multi-year highs seen over the last few years with Pfizer and Moderna shares near 52-week lows.  

This may have many investors wondering if now is a buying opportunity and if the stocks of these somewhat forgotten health saviors have become overlooked after losing their pandemic mojo.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Annual Outlook Comparison

Pfizer’s Pipeline

Pfizer’s stock has lost the most steam from the pandemic falling -37% this year and near 52-week lows at around $32 a share. Still, in addition to is COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty, Pfizer has a pipeline of drugs and vaccines that target inflammation and immunology, rare diseases, and oncology.  

As Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine sales continue to fade earnings are expected to drop -49% in fiscal 2023 to $3.33 a share following a record year that saw EPS at $6.58 in 2022. Fiscal 2024 earnings are expected to dip another -3% at $3.22 a share but would still represent 45% growth over the last five years with EPS at $2.22 in 2020.

Piggybacking on Pfizer’s top line, sales are forecasted to decline -34% this year to $66.47 billion versus $100.33 billion last year which was also a company record. Fiscal 2024 sales are expected to stabilize and be virtually flat with projections of $66.16 billion representing 58% growth over the last five years.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Moderna’s Development

Moderna’s stock has dropped -44% this year and is currently trading around $100 and near its 52-week low of $95 a share. Outside of its Covid-19 vaccine Spikevax, Moderna is focused on discovering and developing messenger-RNA (mRNA) based therapies for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases.

At the moment, Moderna generates all of its product sales from Covid-19 vaccines. After high profitability over the last few years, Moderna’s earnings are forecasted back in the red at an adjusted loss of -$4.32 a share in FY23 plummeting from $20.12 per share last year. Fiscal 2024 EPS projections call for a wider adjust loss of -$5.56 a share.

Total sales are projected at $6.88 billion this year compared to $19.26 billion in 2022. Fiscal 2024 sales are expected to dip another -4% to $6.59 billion but would still be a very stellar 723% increase over the last five years with sales at $803 million in 2020.