Pacific Biosciences of California Inc. PACB reported loss of 27 cents per share in the third quarter of 2015, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. However, the figure was wider than 13 cents of loss reported in the year-ago quarter. The third quarter loss figure excluded a one-time gain of $23 million related to operating lease amendments.
Following the results, shares fell almost 4.4% in after-hours trading on Oct 22.
Quarter Details
Revenues of roughly $14 million lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $16 million and also declined 32.5% on a year-over-year basis. The downside was driven by a massive plunge in contractual revenues that decreased from $11.7 million in the year-ago quarter to $3.6 million in the reported quarter.
Notably, the company has a distribution agreement with Roche. In Aug 2014, the company achieved the first development milestone under the Roche agreement, for which it received $10 million in contractual revenues. Absence of such revenue contribution has hurt top-line growth in the quarter under review.
Product revenues increased almost 12% to $7.6 million. Service revenues grew 27.1% from the year-ago quarter to $2.8 million.
Instrument revenues decreased 37.1% year over year to $2.2 million in the quarter, owing to higher rental revenues, which will be recognized over the leased period.
Consumable revenues in the quarter totaled $5.4 million, up 63.6% on a year-over-year basis. Consumable comprises proprietary single molecule, real-time (SMRT) Cells and reagent kits, which consumers are required to use in combination with the PacBio RS II instrument to get the desired results.
Gross profit came in at $6.6 million as compared with $13.2 million in the year-ago quarter due to lower revenues.
Research & development (R&D) expenses increased 38.2% year over year to $16.2 million, while selling, general & administrative (SG&A) expenses were up 9.5% to $10.8 million. The increase in expenses can be primarily attributed to higher compensation and product development costs related to the launch of the Sequel system.
Operating loss widened to $20.4 million from $8.4 million in the year-ago quarter, primarily because of lower gross margin.
Guidance
Pacific Biosciences expects to gain significant market traction with the recent launch of the PacBio Sequel System. The system was developed as part of its collaboration with Roche. The company expects to start shipping the product in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 2015.
Pacific Biosciences will initially ship 10 Sequel systems to U.S.-based customers (including Roche) during the quarter.
The company expects to receive the final development milestone payment of $20 million from Roche in the fourth quarter of 2015. Including this figure, revenues are forecasted to grow in the range of 50% to 55% (up from at least 40%) over $60.6 million reported in 2014.
Pacific Biosciences expects gross margin of 70% for the fourth quarter owing to the expected Roche milestone payment. Total operating expenses are anticipated to be $27 million for the fourth quarter.
Management forecasts net loss for the full-year 2015 to be half of that reported in 2014.
Pacific Biosciences aims to achieve at least $50 million in cash for full-year 2015.
Our Take
We believe that Pacific Biosciences has significant growth prospects in plant & animal as well as human genome sequencing. The company’s leading position in microbial sequencing also presents it a significant growth opportunity in the infectious disease market.
New products like the Sequel system and barcode sample prep kits continue to expand the company’s product portfolio. Additionally, development and distribution collaborations will drive market penetration going forward.
Moreover, lower product development cost for the Sequel system will expand gross margin. However, persistent losses and cash burn are the primary headwinds facing the company at present.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Currently, Pacific Biosciences has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the same space are Intuitive Surgical ISRG, Masimo Corp MASI and Natus Medical BABY. All the companies sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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