GenomeWeb Top 40 Falls 6 Percent in March, Tracking Decline in Broader Market

NEW YORK – Stocks of the omics and molecular diagnostics companies tracked by the GenomeWeb Top 40 fell 6 percent in March with losses tracking a decline in the broader market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4 percent while the Nasdaq fell 8 percent and the Nasdaq Biotech Index declined by 6 percent. Of the 40 firms tracked by GenomeWeb, 34 saw their stock prices fall month over month and six saw their shares rise in value.

Fulgent Genetics led the winners in March with its shares up 9 percent month over month. At the end of February, the company reported that its Q4 2024 revenues rose 8 percent year over year and that its full-year 2024 revenues of $289.2 million, while down 2 percent year over year, beat the consensus Wall Street estimate of $282.2 million.

Qiagen posted the second-largest gain in stock price in March with shares up 5 percent month over month. During the month, the company received US Food and Drug Administration clearance for its QiaStat-Dx Gastrointestinal Panel 2 Mini B, which detects Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shiga-like toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), Shigella, and Yersinia enterocolitica.

Also in March, the US District Court for the Central District of California denied Qiagen's motion to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit filed by Zymo Research. The Zymo suit is a countersuit to a suit filed by Qiagen in August alleging Zymo's cfDNA MagicBead technology infringes on its patents.

Becton Dickinson posted the third-largest gain in stock price during the month with shares up 2 percent. The company did not report any news that appeared to drive the gain.

Nautilus Biotechnology posted the largest March decline among Top 40 companies with its shares down 34 percent month over month. At the end of February, the company reported that it was again pushing back the launch of its proteome analysis system, this time to late 2026. It also announced that it laid off 16 percent of its staff in an effort to extend its cash runway.

Grail shares also fell by 34 percent month over month. According to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, at the beginning of the month, President Joshua Ofman and CFO Aaron Freidin sold small amounts of Grail stock. Otherwise, the company did not report any news that appeared to drive the decline.

Maravai LifeSciences posted the third-largest decline in stock price with shares down 31 percent. The company reported during the month that its Q4 2024 revenues were down 24 percent to $56.6 million from $74.1 million in Q4 2023. Full-year 2024 revenue was $259.2 million, down 10 percent from $288.9 million in 2023. CEO Trey Martin noted in a statement that revenue did not meet the company's "original expectations set in early 2024."

Maravai also continued to deal with "a potential non-cash impairment charge related to goodwill associated with its previous acquisition of Alphazyme," as well as a revenue recognition error that led to roughly $3.9 million being recorded in Q2 2024 when it should have been recorded in Q3. The company originally reported these issues in February when it announced it was postponing its Q4 and full-year 2024 earnings call.