NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Caliper Life Sciences today reported 4 percent organic revenue growth amid a 5.5 percent drop in overall revenues for the third quarter. Caliper also noted that it narrowed its net loss for the quarter by 37 percent.
The Hopkinton, Mass.-based firm also said that it has been awarded a $1.8 million Phase II commitment from the Environmental Protection Agency to screen as many as 700 compounds against Caliper's ToxCast assay panel, but doesn't expect to realize this revenue until the first quarter of 2010.
Caliper's stock was up nearly 16 percent to $2.49 in early Monday trade on Nasdaq.
Overall, Caliper reported revenues of $32.2 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with $34 million in revenues in Q3 2008.
Caliper said that the decrease in revenues was primarily due to the Q3 2008 divestiture of two non-core businesses — its pharmaceutical development and quality analysis product line and its water testing sample prep product line.
The company reported that its product revenues increased by about $1 million to almost $21 million from $20 million in the year-ago period; although its service revenues decreased to $8.2 million from $10.6 million. License fees and contract revenues also dropped slightly to $3 million from $3.5 million.
Revenue from research product families grew 7 percent during the quarter including a 10 percent increase in microfluidic revenues – driven primarily by strong sales of its LabChip GX instrument line – and a 5 percent increase in automation revenues.
Meantime, the company's imaging revenues were up by 15 percent in the third quarter driven by sales of the IVIS instruments and associated reagents; while revenues for the Caliper Discovery Alliances and Services screening division decreased by 26 percent, which the company blamed on lower government services revenues, including a delay in receiving the Phase II ToxCast project order from the EPA.
Caliper's net loss for the quarter was $3.4 million, or $.07 per share, compared to a net loss of $5.4 million, or $.11 per share, in the third quarter of 2008.
The firm's R&D spending decreased to $4.2 million from about $5 million, while its SG&A expenses edged up to $10.8 million from $10.3 million in the year-ago period.
Caliper finished the quarter with cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities of $26.5 million.
Company officials reaffirmed expected organic revenue growth for the year of between 5 and 7 percent and upped the lower end of its full-year revenue guidance to be between $127 million and $129 million, which would assume fourth-quarter revenues to be between $34.5 million and $36.5 million.
"With solid momentum with IVIS and LabChip sales, we believe our strong performance will continue into the fourth quarter and 2010," Caliper President and CEO Kevin Hrusovsky said in a statement. "We have delivered positive operating cash flows year-to-date and are targeting positive cash flows for full-year 2009."