Moderna (MRNA) shares are getting a boost in Thursday's pre-market trading as the pharmaceutical giant reported an unexpected profit in its third quarter. The company posted $1.86 billion in revenue and adjusted earnings of $0.03 per share, while it was originally expecting a loss of about $1.90 per share, fueled by higher-than-expected sales of its COVID-19 vaccines.

"While there was a headline beat, in part due to hundreds of millions of dollars of higher sales reported for the COVID vaccine, they maintain the guidance," Jefferies biotech analyst Michael Yee tells Yahoo Finance. "So it was mostly, in our opinion, due to timing of the shipments and the orders."

Yee comments that Jefferies' findings suggest Moderna's vaccination uptake is trending lower than last year, and is forecasting "a fairly challenging year" for the company in 2025 based on broader biotech themes. The analyst weighs in on Moderna's long-term investments in RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccines and messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.

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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.