Shares of Fluidigm Corp. FLDM gained more than 5% (52 cents) to close at $10.86 on Nov 25, 2015, following the news that Time Magazine has selected the company’s Juno System as one of the top 25 inventions of 2015.
Juno’s ability to pre-amplify and analyze DNA in a single step, thereby saving significant amount of time for testers, is particularly impressive. The system needs a tiny amount of DNA to boot and shows results much faster (three hours) compared to traditional devices (five to six hours).
Launched in early 2015, Juno enables scientists to prepare samples for various Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) genotyping applications. Scientists can process low-concentration DNA samples such as tissue samples, buccal swabs, blood, FFPE and polyploid organisms using the system. Libraries prepared on Fluidigm’s Juno system can be sequenced on any Illumina ILMN sequencer.
We believe the Time Magazine recognition will provide a significant boost to Juno’s adoption among scientists and researchers, thereby driving Fluidigm’s top-line growth further.
Fluidigm’s expanding product portfolio and strong pipeline is a key growth catalyst in our view. The company started shipping the new high throughput single cell MRNA sequencing chips in the recently reported third quarter of 2015. The chips accounted for nearly 20% of C1 consumable sales in the quarter.
Moreover, new products like Callisto and Polaris promise strong customer growth in the fields of immunology, oncology, stem-cell biology and neuroscience. The Helios platform also continues to perform well, reinforcing management’s confidence in the product pipeline.
Further, genomic analytical system (Juno belongs to this group) sales are encouraging. Fluidigm noted that a significant part of the sales were driven by industrial customers, particularly clinical and agriculture (representing approximately 50% of unit sales).
Fluidigm plans to launch a new targeted resequencing sample preparation workflow on this platform in the first quarter of 2016. The product will primarily address the needs of the clinical and agricultural market, which should provide further growth opportunities for the company.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Fluidigm currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Masimo MASI and Natus Medical BABY, both with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), are two other top-ranked stocks in the same industry.
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