NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Illumina reported after the close of the market today that total fourth quarter 2014 revenues increased 32 percent year over year.
The San Diego-based company said that for the last three months of 2014, it took in $512.4 million in total revenues, up from $387.3 in the year ago quarter. Product revenues climbed 34 percent in the quarter to $450.3 million from $336.4 million in Q4 2013, while service revenue grew 22 percent to $62.1 million from $50.9 million.
Its Q4 revenues were on par with what the company pre-reported at the JP Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco earlier this month, and beat the average analysts' estimate of $507.7 million for the quarter. Revenues from Illumina's sequencing business grew 48 percent in Q4 driven by instrument demand and record consumable sales, CEO Jay Flatley said during a conference call discussing the firm's results. Meantime, array revenue was down 11 percent in the quarter due to "aggressive pricing," Flatley said.
Illumina posted a profit of $153.3 million, or $1.03 per share, in the quarter compared to $80.7 million, or $.56 per share, for the previous year's quarter. Its non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $128.9 million, or $.87 per share, compared to $64.5 million, or $.45 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2013. The firm beat the consensus Wall Street estimate of $.78 per share.
"We delivered record fourth quarter and fiscal year 2014 financial results which greatly exceeded our expectations," Flatley said in a statement.
Instrument revenue in the fourth quarter grew 75 percent year over year to $156 million, driven by the company's HiSeq X Ten and NextSeq 500 sequencing systems, which Illumina launched early last year.
Revenue from consumable sales grew 19 percent to $290 million, Marc Stapley, senior vice president and CFO, said during the call. Higher demand for sequencing consumables was partially offset by a decline in arrays.
The recently announced HiSeq X Five, HiSeq 3000/4000 and NextSeq 550 instruments "will position us for continued long-term growth as we develop and address the large and nascent market opportunities ahead of us," Flatley added.
Illumina's R&D expenses for the quarter were up 86 percent to $142.9 million from $76.7 million in the prior year period, while SG&A expenses were up 10 percent to $122.2 million from $111.6 million in the prior-year period. Included in the Q4 R&D expenses was $49 million in legal contingency costs that Illumina paid to Sequenom as a result of the firms' patent pooling agreement, Stapley said.
The firm also confirmed that total year revenues were up 31 percent to $1.86 billion in FY 2014 from $1.42 billion in FY 2013.
For full-year 2014 Illumina posted a profit of $353.4 million, or $2.37 per share, compared to $125.3 million, or $.90 per share, in 2013. On a non-GAAP basis, the company's FY 2014 profit was $407.2 million, or $2.74 per share, compared to $249.7 million, or $1.80 per share, in FY 2013. On average, analysts had expected EPS of $2.65 for FY2014.
For the full year, R&D expenses increased 29 percent to $388.1 million from $276.7 million in FY 2013, while SG&A increased 20 percent to $466.3 million from $381.0 million in the prior year.
Illumina said that it expects revenue growth of 20 percent in FY 2015 and non-GAAP EPS of $3.12 to $3.18.
As of Dec. 28, 2014, Illumina had $636.2 million in cash and cash equivalents and $702.2 million in short-term investments.