NEW YORK – Personalis said after the close of the market on Thursday that its Q4 revenues fell 15 percent year over year. Meanwhile, the firm's full-year 2024 revenues jumped 15 percent as dwindling contract revenues were buoyed by an uptick in molecular testing sales.
For the three months ended Dec. 31, the Fremont, California-based precision oncology testing company reported $16.8 million in revenues compared to $19.7 million in Q4 2023. Fourth-quarter revenues were in line with preliminary estimates provided by the company in January and slightly above analysts' average estimate of $15.5 million. The Q4 drop was primarily due to an expected decline in revenues from an enterprise sales contract with Natera and a US Department of Veterans Affairs population sequencing contract, both of which wound down last year.
The company noted that it delivered 1,441 molecular tests in Q4 2024, up 52 percent sequentially from 945 tests in Q3 2024. The firm also recently submitted for Medicare coverage of its NeXT Personal Dx liquid biopsy assay in early-stage breast cancer.
Personalis' Q4 R&D spending dropped 15 percent to $11.5 million from $13.6 million in the year-ago quarter, while its SG&A expenses fell 3 percent to $11.2 million from $11.5 million.
The company trimmed its Q4 net loss to $16.4 million, or $.23 per share, from a net loss of $26.6 million, or $.54 per share, in the year-ago quarter. On average, analysts had expected a higher loss per share of $.28. Personalis used approximately 72.9 million shares to calculate per-share loss in the recently completed quarter compared to about 49.6 million shares in Q4 2023.
In December, the company raised $50 million in a direct investment transaction with Merck, which now owns about 14 million or 16.5 percent of the company's shares. Personalis also signed a multiyear extension with Moderna in Q4 to provide its ImmunoID NeXT assay for V940/mRNA-4157, an investigational individualized neoantigen therapy being jointly developed by Merck and Moderna.
For full-year 2024, Personalis booked revenues of $84.6 million compared to $73.5 million in 2023, also in line with preliminary revenues and above the Wall Street estimate of $83.4 million.
Revenue from pharma tests and services, enterprise sales, clinical diagnostics, and other customers grew 20 percent in 2024 to $77.2 million from $64.1 million a year ago, despite an expected 20 percent decrease in revenue from Natera to $25.4 million for 2024. The company also noted that full-year revenue from the VA sequencing deal fell 21 percent year over year to $7.4 million from $9.4 million a year ago.
Personalis delivered 3,285 molecular tests in 2024 compared to 177 in 2023.
Full-year R&D spending dropped 25 percent to $48.9 million from $64.8 million, while SG&A spending fell 7 percent to $46.2 million from $49.7 million in 2023.
Personalis' full-year net loss was $81.3 million, or $1.37 per share, compared to a net loss of $108.3 million, or $2.25 per share, in 2023. On average, analysts were expecting a larger net loss per share of $1.45. Personalis used approximately 59.3 million shares to calculate per-share loss in 2024 compared to about 48.2 million shares in Q4 2023.
The company ended the year with $91.4 million in cash and cash equivalents and $93.6 million in short-term investments.
Personalis expects full-year 2025 revenues of $80 million to $90 million, with revenue from pharma tests and services and all other customers of $62 million to $64 million. Population sequencing and enterprise sales revenues are anticipated to be in the range of $15 million to $16 million. The company said it expects to incur a full-year net loss of approximately $85 million.
For the first quarter of 2025, Personalis anticipates revenues of $17 million to $18 million, comprising pharma tests/services and other customer revenues of $10 million to $11 million and population sequencing/enterprise sales revenues of about $7 million.