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NanoString Technologies Q3 Revenues Grow 17 Percent

NEW YORK – NanoString Technologies reported after the close of the market Wednesday that its third quarter revenues were up 17 percent year over year, driven largely by instrument sales, demand for consumables, and services.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, the company's total revenues were $37.2 million, compared to $31.8 million for the same period last year, falling short of analysts' consensus estimate of $37.8 million. NanoString's Q3 product and service revenues grew 23 percent to $36.9 million from $30.1 million a year ago, and its Q3 collaboration revenues dropped to $226,000 from $1.8 million a year ago.

Instrument revenue rose 13 percent to $14.5 million driven by GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP) and nCounter Analysis System sales, which grew 14 percent and 11 percent over the same period last year, respectively. Consumables revenues grew 32 percent to $18.0 million, with GeoMx DSP consumables more than quadrupling and nCounter consumables growing by 10 percent. Service revenue ticked up 22 percent to $4.4 million from $3.6 million.

In a conference call with investors, Doug Farrell, VP of investor relations, attributed the slower-than-expected nCounter consumables sales to the lingering effects of the pandemic. This particularly affected biopharma customers focused on oncology biomarkers, due to widespread pauses in clinical trials.

"An estimated 70 percent of nCounter users pursue oncology research," Farrell said, "while about 25 percent of nCounters are owned by biopharma companies and CROs." NanoString expects these sales to remain below average before recovering in 2022.

Overall, the company said that GeoMx instrument orders grew by 40 percent, with the installed base rising to approximately 225 systems as of Sept. 30 from 100 installations at this same time last year.

Total nCounter installed base rose to approximately 1,030 systems by the same date, compared to 915 systems at this time last year, and 1,015 systems at the end of Q2.

In October, the company released the publicly available Spatial Organ Atlas, an annotated whole-transcriptome database covering six organs, derived through use of the GeoMx DSP.

That same month, NanoString launched the nCounter Antibody Drug Conjugates Developmental Panel, a specialized gene expression tool meant to both answer questions of basic biology and to better understand the challenges of oncology therapies.

NanoString's Q3 net loss grew to $31.3 million, or $.69 per share, from approximately $21.3 million, or $.56 per share in the same period last year. The company did not provide adjusted net loss per share.

NanoString's Q3 R&D spending increased 27 percent to $19.1 million from $15.0 million, while its SG&A expenses jumped 48 percent to $30.3 million from $20.5 million.

The company finished the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $107.2 million, and short-term investments of $262.7 million.

The company lowered its full year product and service revenue guidance to a range of $140 million to $144 million from a previous range of $143 million to $147 million.

"We now expect full year 2021 GeoMx revenue will be in the range of $49 million to $50 million, driven by instrument order growth of possibly 50 percent for the full year at the upper end of our annual guidance range," NanoString CFO Tom Bailey said during the call.

The company estimates nCounter revenue of approximately $91 million to $94 million compared to previous guidance of $143 million to $147 million.

NanoString anticipates total product and service revenue of $140 million to $144 million for the year, down from its previous guidance of $143 million to $147 million.

NanoString shares were trading at $45.56 during early morning trading on Wednesday.