NEW YORK – Natera has priced a follow-on offering of its common stock at $35 per share, the San Carlos, California-based molecular diagnostics firm announced this morning.
Natera is offering 5,714,286 shares of its common stock, which would result in gross proceeds of $200 million. If the underwriters exercise their option to an additional 857,142 shares of Natera's common stock, that would bring in an additional $30 million in gross proceeds.
JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Cowen, and Piper Jaffray are joint bookrunning managers on the offering, with Baird and Craig-Hallum Capital Group acting as co-managers.
Natera said that it will use the money from the offering for working capital, general corporate purposes, and investment in research and development. It may also use a portion of the funds for acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies, or other assets, although it has no current plans to do so.
The firm announced yesterday its intention to offer the shares, and disclosed in its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it expects its third quarter revenues to be in the range of $74 million to $76 million, topping Wall Street's consensus estimate of $73.5 million.
Natera expects to close the offering on Oct. 21.
In Thursday morning trade on the Nasdaq, shares of Natera were up 2 percent at $37.09. The shares had declined 3 percent yesterday after the firm had announced its plans to offer the stock.