NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Fluidigm reported after the close of the market on Thursday that its fourth quarter revenues jumped 17 percent year over year driven in large part by its mass cytometry business.
For the three months ended Dec. 31, the South San Francisco, California-based life science research tools firm tallied revenues of $32.3 million compared to $27.7 million a year ago and besting analysts' average estimate of $30.6 million. The company also bested previous guidance of Q4 revenues of $29 million to $32 million.
Instrument revenues rose 21 percent to $13.76 million from $11.3 million while consumables revenues grew 15 percent to $13.5 million from $11.7 million. Service revenues rose about 11 percent to $5.2 million from $4.7 million.
By market, revenues from mass cytometry instruments, consumables, and service increased 48 percent to $19.1 million from $12.9 million in Q4 2017. Meanwhile, revenues from microfluidics instruments, consumables, and service revenues fell 11 percent to $13.2 million from $14.8 million a year ago. Prior to the recently completed quarter the company had reported its microfluidics business as genomics.
Demand for the company's Hyperion Imaging System, Helios CyTOF system, and associated consumables "reflects sustained momentum in the adoption rate of mass cytometry in the fourth quarter," Fluidigm President and CEO Chris Linthwaite said in a statement. "The general trend in multi-system placements continues, driven by immunology-related research in pharma and biotech."
As an example, Linthwaite noted that last month contract research organization Caprion Biosciences announced an expansion of its mass cytometry capacity. In a conference call following the release of Fluidigm's earnings, Linthwaite elaborated on the Caprion deal.
"Caprion Biosciences, a leading contract research organization, purchased incremental Helios capacity to support its burgeoning backlog of pharma and biotech projects," Linthwaite said. "They focus on pre-clinical and clinical research support. Their sales team presents our value proposition every week as part of a larger biomarker story, and demand has grown steadily since they first offered the service. This storyline has played out at CROs in other geographies."
During the call, CFO Vikram Jog noted that the company's mass cytometry system installed base increased by 20 percent during 2018, reflecting strong growth in instrument sales, while its microfluidics installed base declined by 7 percent "due to headwinds in our single-cell business and our focus on high-throughput customers. While the total active installed base of instruments has declined, consumables revenue and pull-through are expected to grow in 2019."
Earlier in the day Fluidigm announced its participation in the TIMID Consortium, in which six academic institutions and five life science and pharma companies are exploring the common cellular basis of T cell-driven immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, with Fluidigm's mass cytometry and imaging mass cytometry systems playing a key role.
The company also said this week that it has entered into a comarketing partnership with Indica Labs to promote that company's HALO image analysis products with Fluidigm's Hyperion imaging mass cytometry platform and related reagents and software.
Fluidigm reported a Q4 net loss of $14.8 million, or $.36 per share, compared to a net loss of $10.5 million, or $.27 per share a year ago. The higher net loss in Q4 was primarily due to non-cash interest associated with the convertible debt exchange in 2018 and the impact of a favorable litigation settlement in the quarter.
On an adjusted basis Fluidigm's Q4 net loss was $.06 per share. Analysts, on average, had expected a loss per share of $.35.
Fluidigm's Q4 R&D spending rose 11 percent year over year to $8.0 million from $7.2 million while its SG&A expenses jumped 38 percent to $22.0 million from $15.9 million.
For full-year 2018 Fluidigm reported revenues of $113.0 million, up 11 percent from $101.9 million in 2017, and falling short of Wall Street's estimate of $111.2 million.
Instrument revenues grew 7 percent year over year to $45.5 million from $42.5 million, and consumables revenues grew 15 percent to $48.2 million from $41.9 million. Service revenues rose about 12 percent to $19.3 million from $17.3 million.
By end market, 2018 mass cytometry revenues increased 27 percent to $59.6 million from $46.8 million a year ago, while microfluidics revenues fell 3 percent to $53.4 million from $55.2 million in 2017.
Fluidigm's 2018 net loss was $59.0 million, or $1.49 per share, compared to a net loss of $60.5 million, or $1.84 per share in 2017. On an adjusted basis, 2018 loss per share was $.52, besting analysts' average estimate of $1.48.
Fluidigm's 2018 R&D spending dipped slightly to $30.0 million from $30.8 million while its SG&A expenses inched up to $79.8 million from $79.5 million.
Fluidigm finished the quarter with $95.4 million in cash and cash equivalents.
During the earnings call, Jog said that the company expects first quarter 2019 revenues of $28 million to $31 million.