This article has been updated to add comments from PacBio's earnings call.
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Pacific Biosciences reported after the close of the market Thursday that its first quarter 2016 revenues were up 8 percent year over year.
The Menlo Park, California-based single-molecule sequencing technologies firm reported Q1 revenues of $19.1 million compared to $17.6 million in Q1 2015. It beat the consensus Wall Street estimate of $18.0 million.
Product revenue climbed to $12.4 million in Q1, from $11.3 million in Q1 2015, while service and other revenue was $3.2 million, up from $2.7 million in the previous year's quarter. The company also received $3.6 million in contractual revenue from Roche, consistent with the prior year quarter.
Product revenue included $7.8 million in instrument revenue, up 11 percent from $7.0 million in the prior year quarter, as well as $4.6 million in consumable revenue, up 8 percent from Q1 2015 consumable revenue of $4.3 million, PacBio CEO Mike Hunkapiller said during a conference call discussing the firm's first quarter results.
Hunkapiller said that the company received orders for 30 of its new Sequel systems as well as three RS II systems from a "broad range of customers," about half of which were new. In addition, it shipped 18 instruments. Going forward, Hunkapiller said that the company anticipated almost all of its new orders and installations would be for the Sequel system.
In addition, PacBio is planning to introduce its first software upgrade to the Sequel system in May, which will "add support for some applications that weren't initially supported," Hunkapiller said.
As the company reported during its Q4 2015 earnings call, it expects total 2016 revenues of at least $93 million. However, as expected, its contractual revenue from Roche will drop to $11 million in 2016 from $44 million in 2015, due to the company having met all its developmental milestones. Excluding Roche payments, the 2016 revenue forecast represents about a 70 percent year-over-year increase in product and service revenue, Ben Gong, PacBio's VP of finance and treasurer, said during the call.
Net loss for the first quarter was $19.4 million, or $.23 per share, down from $20.5 million, or $.27 per share, in the year ago quarter, and beating analysts' average estimate of a $.25 loss per share.
PacBio's Q1 R&D costs climbed to $16.4 million from $14.5 million in Q1 2015. SG&A costs were also up, at $11.7 million compared to $10.8 million in the prior-year period.
As of March 31, the firm had $91.5 million in cash and investments.