Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. PACB continues to benefit from innovative product portfolio, the company’s platform — Sequel system, and promising Asian markets. However, intense competition remains a woe.
Shares of Pacific Biosciences have lost 29.2% in a year’s time, against the industry’s growth of 22.2%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Index rallied 28% in the same timeframe.
The company, with a market capitalization of $802 million, develops, manufactures and markets sequencing systems, which help in studying synthesis, composition, structure and regulation of deoxyribonucleic acid, popularly known as DNA.
Let’s take a closer look at the factors that substantiate the company’s Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
What’s Deterring the Stock?
The DNA sequencing market is highly competitive thanks to the presence of established players like Illumina ILMN and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. TMO. Low-cost sequencing products from Illumina continue to gain traction, which remains a headwind.
What’s Favoring the Stock?
Pacific Biosciences continues to gain from innovative product portfolio that has been boosting performance for quite some time now. Moreover, new developments in products instill optimism in the stock.
With respect to such developments, the company has obtained average sequencing read links approaching 100 kilobases sequencing yield for SMRT cell exceeding 40 gigabases. These developments have opened new avenues for SMRT Sequencing and are likely to expand the company’s product spectrum.
Pacific Biosciences’ flagship platform — the Sequel system — has been strengthening presence globally. Sequel system is a nucleic acid sequencing platform based on SMRT technology. The Sequel System has been a significant contributor to the top line.
In the recent past, the company unveiled the upgraded Sequel System and new multiplexing tools at the American Society for Microbiology to make the process of obtaining microbial genomes accurate, faster and more affordable. We expect the Sequel system’s higher throughput, scalability, lower upfront capital investment, and smaller size and weight to attract cost-sensitive customers.
Pacific Biosciences continues to witness solid demand for SMRT sequencing in Asia. The company also sees significant strength in its China business. Moreover, Novogene has become Pacific Biosciences’ largest customer worldwide. The facility is located in Nanjing China and houses 20 sequel systems.
Which Way Are Estimates Headed?
For 2019, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $88.5 million, indicating an improvement of 12.5% from the year-ago period. The same for earnings stands at a loss of 71 cents per share.
A Stock to Consider
A better-ranked stock from the broader medical space is Conmed Corporation CNMD, currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Conmed has a projected long-term earnings growth rate of 15%.
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