BioNTech Earnings: Strong Covid Revenue, but Full-Year Expectations Unchanged

No-moat BioNTech reported EUR 1.2 billion in revenue in the third quarter, which is a 39% increase compared with the same period last year. The additional revenue is due to the earlier timing of approvals for BioNTech’s variant-adapted covid vaccines compared with last year. However, the company still expects full-year revenue to fall at the low end of its guidance range of EUR 2.5 billion to EUR 3.1 billion. We think the company’s outlook is dependent on the success of its oncology pipeline, including novel antibodies such as BNT327 (PD-L1 and VEGF bispecific), its iNeST platform (individualized cancer vaccines), and its FixVac platform (off-the-shelf cancer vaccines). We maintain our fair value estimate of $143 per ADR and await more detailed pipeline updates at its next investor event on Nov. 14.