NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) — Affymetrix said today that it expects to report total revenues of approximately $78 million for the first quarter when it releases its financial results later this month.
The preliminary revenues missed the average Wall Street estimate of $83.3 million for the quarter.
Affymetrix did not provide first quarter guidance when it reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2012 revenues in February. Though the firm's Q1 2013 revenues grew by about 20 percent compared to its first-quarter 2012 revenues, the most recent quarter included a $19 million contribution from Affymetrix's eBioscience business, which it acquired last June.
"Our revenues for the first quarter were below expectations, primarily due to continued headwinds in our gene expression business across all regions, in particular Japan, where we came in significantly short of plan," Affymetrix President and CEO Frank Witney said in a statement.
At the same time, Witney said that Affymetrix's genotyping and cytogenetics product lines "generated solid growth" during the quarter, and that eBioscience has "modest growth" compared to Q1 2012.
Affymetrix filed its CytoScan product for the detection of constitutional abnormalities with the US Food and Drug Administration during the quarter.
Witney also noted in the statement that Affymetrix ended Q1 with a "major win" by securing a 500,000-sample genotyping deal with UK Biobank last month.
Affymetrix recently eliminated 100 positions, or 8 percent of its workforce. The company said at the time that the restructuring would allow it to save about $25 million on an annualized basis.
As of March 31, Affymetrix said it had cash on hand of about $38 million, after redeeming the remaining $3.9 million of its 3.5 percent convertible notes and prepaying $3.2 million of its senior-secured debt. CFO Tim Barabe said in a statement that the company's senior secured debt is now $70 million and that "debt repayment continues to be one of our priorities in 2013."
The firm said it will provide a more detailed business update when it reports its Q1 results on April 30.
In Tuesday morning trade on the Nasdaq, shares of Affymetrix were down around 15 percent at $3.98.