NEW YORK – Qiagen reported after the close of the market on Wednesday that its fourth quarter 2024 revenues increased approximately 2 percent over the prior-year period.
Qiagen also announced that it has reorganized its three business areas — molecular diagnostics, life sciences, and Qiagen digital insights — into two functional global teams. The Product Portfolio and Innovation team will span global marketing, clinical medical regulatory affairs, R&D, and product management and will be led by Nitin Sood. The Commercial Operations team will focus on sales and regional marketing and will be led by Fernando Beils.
For the three months ended Dec. 31, Qiagen reported total net sales of $521 million, up 2 percent from $509 million a year ago and beating the Wall Street estimate of $518.5 million. At constant exchange rates (CER), fourth quarter revenues increased 3 percent to $525 million, ahead of the firm's outlook for at least $520 million at CER. Excluding sales from discontinued products, such as NeuMoDx, Qiagen reported 4 percent CER core sales growth in the quarter.
"Our teams at Qiagen concluded 2024 with a solid performance in the fourth quarter, exceeding our outlook for net sales and profitability," Qiagen CEO Thierry Bernard said in a statement. "These results underscore the resilience of our portfolio — with over 85 percent of sales coming from highly recurring revenues — and our focus on delivering solid profitable growth in an ongoing challenging environment."
On a call with investors Thursday morning, Bernard also said the financial results reenforce Qiagen's momentum moving into 2025 and support a plan he outlined at an investor day in June to achieve a 7 percent compound annual growth rate, $2 billion in sales, and $1 billion returned to shareholders by 2028.
In the fourth quarter, consumables and related revenues grew 4 percent at CER, Qiagen said, while instrument sales declined 6 percent. The company reported double-digit CER sales growth in the QiaStat-Dx and QuantiFeron franchises and in QiAcuity digital PCR consumables.
Sales in the diagnostic solutions business unit grew 10 percent at CER to $196 million from $180 million — or 12 percent excluding the NeuMoDx business — which Qiagen said was due to double-digit CER growth in consumable sales that offset a decline of instrument sales over Q4 2023.
Sales of the firm's QuantiFeron latent tuberculosis test increased 14 percent at CER to $116 million from $102 million, while QiaStat-Dx sales increased 25 percent at CER to $32 million from $26 million. Sales in the NeuMoDx product group decreased 19 percent at CER to $9 million from $11 million in the year-ago period, Qiagen said, and the NeuMoDx system remains on track for discontinuation in mid-2025.
Sales in the PCR and nucleic acid amplification business unit increased 3 percent at CER to $82 million from $81 million driven by double-digit CER growth in QiAcuity digital PCR system consumable sales. Sales of other PCR consumables grew at a low-single-digit CER rate in the quarter. Qiagen said it has placed more than 2,700 QiAcuity systems since launch, despite the challenging trends in instrument purchasing. On the call, Bernard specified that the firm placed more that 200 dPCR systems in Q4.
Sales in the genomics and next-generation sequencing business unit increased 2 percent at CER to $66 million from $65 million, supported by growth in universal consumables used on third-party NGS systems.
Within the genomics and NGS business, Qiagen digital insights sales increased at a single-digit CER rate driven by clinical portfolio growth, with results impacted by a transition from long-term licensing agreements to a software-as-service subscription model.
Sales in the sample technologies business unit were down 1 percent at CER to $162 million from $164 million, with consumables and forensics applications offset by challenging instrument sales trends.
Other sales, meanwhile, declined 21 percent at CER to $15 million from $19 million.
In the quarter, R&D expenses increased approximately 6 percent to $48.6 million from $46.0 million, while SG&A expenses declined approximately 3 percent to $141.7 million from $146.0 million. Charges related to restructuring, acquisition, integration, and other operating expenses more than doubled to $22.1 million from $10.9 million.
Qiagen's Q4 net income was $88.3 million, or $.39 per share, compared to a net income of $97.7 million, or $.42 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2023. Adjusted EPS was $.61, above the firm's outlook for at least $.60 at CER and slightly below analysts' average estimate of $.62.
For full-year 2024, Qiagen's net sales increased 1 percent to $1.98 billion from $1.97 billion a year ago, in line with analysts' average estimate. At CER, the firm's 2024 net sales also increased 1 percent.
In 2024, diagnostic solutions sales increased 8 percent at CER to $749 million from $698 million, including 11 percent growth of QuantiFeron sales to $454 million from $408 million and 24 percent growth in QiaStat-Dx sales to $109 million from $88 million. NeuMoDx sales for the year were down 24 percent to $32 million from $42 million.
Sales in the PCR and nucleic acid amplification business were flat year over year at $300 million, while sales in the genomics and NGS business were down 1 percent at CER to $234 million from $239 million in 2023. Sample technologies sales declined 3 percent at CER to $642 million from $663 million, and other sales were down 15 percent at CER to $53 million from $66 million.
Within sample tech, Bernard said on the call that the EZ2 Connect system recently marked a milestone with 1,000 cumulative placements.
In 2024, Qiagen's R&D expenses declined approximately 3 percent to $193.5 million from $198.5 million, while SG&A expenses declined approximately 3 percent to $564.4 million from $579.2 million. The company's restructuring, acquisition, integration, and other expenses nearly tripled in 2024 to $102.2 million from $35.3 million in 2023.
Qiagen recently obtained US Food and Drug Administration regulatory clearance for the QiaStat-Dx Gastrointestinal Panel Mini B&V bacterial and viral assay and submitted the QiaStat-Dx Rise high-throughput system. It also obtained FDA clearance for two companion diagnostic tests and launched the QiAcuity High Multiplex Probe PCR kit to enable 12-target multiplexing of its digital PCR system.
On the call, Bernard disclosed that Qiagen is expanding the QiaStat-Dx portfolio with an assay for blood culture testing, including pathogens that can cause sepsis. The test will launch later this year in Europe and also be submitted for regulatory review in the US. The majority of the 4,600 QiaStat-Dx systems placed to date are ex-US, he said, but the team continues to work on expanding the system's footprint and anticipates increased uptake following US clearance of the Rise system.
In January, the firm also returned approximately $300 million to shareholders through a synthetic share repurchase.
Qiagen reported net income in 2024 of $83.6 million, or $.37 per share, compared to net income of $341.3 million, or $1.48 per share, in 2023. Adjusted EPS of $2.18 was above the firm's initial outlook for EPS of at least $2.10 and was short of analysts' consensus estimate of $2.24.
"We are pleased with our 2024 results that featured strong free cash flow combined with solid sales growth and a significant increase in the outlook for adjusted EPS during the year thanks to operational profitability improvements," Bernard said in a statement.
Qiagen finished the year with $663.6 million in cash and cash equivalents, and $489.4 million in short-term investments.
The company said that in 2025 it expects net sales to rise approximately 4 percent at CER, or 5 percent at CER in the core business, with adjusted diluted EPS expected to be at least $2.28 CER. For Q1, the firm expects net sales to rise approximately 3 percent at CER or 4 percent in the core business from $459 million in Q1 2024. Adjusted diluted EPS is expected to be at least $.50 compared to $.46 in the prior year quarter.
Qiagen is also expecting negative currency impacts against the US dollar of approximately $.02 to $.03 per share on adjusted EPS results for full-year 2025, and approximately $.01 per share on adjusted EPS results for Q1 2025.