NEW YORK – Fulgent Genetics reported before the market opened on Wednesday that its fourth quarter 2023 core revenues grew 21 percent year over year. Including COVID-related sales, full revenues for the quarter increased 4 percent year over year.
For the three months ended Dec. 31, Fulgent reported revenues of $70.5 million, up from $67.7 million in Q4 2022 and beating the average Wall Street estimate of $66.3 million. Core revenues, which exclude revenues from COVID-19 testing products and services such as COVID-19 next-generation sequencing testing, grew 21 percent year over year to $66.5 million, Fulgent said.
On a call with investors to discuss the results, Fulgent CFO Paul Kim said that approximately $4 million of the $70.5 million in Q4 revenues was COVID-related. Precision diagnostics, anatomic pathology, and biopharma services, meanwhile, contributed $35.5 million, $26.3 million, and $4.7 million, respectively, in the quarter.
Fulgent reported a Q4 net loss attributable to the company of $128.1 million, or $4.30 per share, compared to a net loss of $23.8 million, or $.80 per share, in Q4 2022. Adjusted loss per share for the recently completed quarter was $.28, in line with the Wall Street analysts' estimate of a loss per share of $.29.
Q4 R&D expenses increased 41 percent year over year to $12.0 million from $8.5 million, while SG&A expenses increased 8 percent to $42.2 million from $39.0 million.
For full-year 2023, Fulgent reported $289.2 million in revenues, down 53 percent from $619.0 million in 2022 but above the consensus Wall Street estimate of $285.0 million.
Excluding revenues from COVID-19 testing products and services, core revenues grew 44 percent year over year to $262.1 million, which Fulgent attributed in part to continued momentum in precision diagnostics, pointing to its launch last year of its Beacon 787-Expanded Carrier Screening Panel.
According to Kim, approximately $47.1 million of the 2023 revenues were COVID-related. Precision diagnostics, anatomic pathology, and biopharma services contributed $132.0 million, $104.7 million, and $25.4 million, respectively, in the year.
Regarding biopharma services, Fulgent Chief Commercial Officer Brandon Perthuis said the firm "exited 2022 with tremendous momentum, and 2023 took off at a very fast pace" but that "unrelated to Fulgent, some of our biopharma clients have had issues, and some of those projects have either pulled way back or been terminated." This affected two of the firm's larger clients, Perthuis added, noting that the company's focus for 2024 is to forge new relationships and expand on existing ones.
Fulgent reported a net loss attributable to the company for 2023 of $167.8 million, or $5.63 per share, from a net income of $143.4 million, or $4.76 per share, in 2022. Adjusted EPS for 2023 was a loss of $.41, beating the average Wall Street analyst estimate of a loss of $.98 per share.
The company's 2023 R&D expenses increased 43 percent to $41.4 million from $28.9 million a year ago. SG&A expenses for the year decreased 13 percent to $130.5 million from $150.0 million in 2022.
Fulgent ended the year with $97.4 million in cash and cash equivalents and $750.3 million in marketable securities.
On the call, the firm said it expects to have a significant cash outlay in 2024 of more than $15 million as it builds out and moves into a 96,500-square-foot facility in the Dallas area.
For full-year 2024, the firm expects approximately $280 million in core revenues, net loss of about $2.25 per share, and non-GAAP loss of approximately $1.05 per share.
The $280 million guide, Kim noted, consists of $96.3 million from anatomic pathology, $10.7 million from biopharma services, and $173.3 million from precision diagnostics, adding that Fulgent sees continued momentum in its sequencing business.
In Wednesday morning trading on the Nasdaq, Fulgent's shares were down 9 percent at $23.10.