NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Illumina reported after the close of the market on Tuesday that its first quarter 2018 revenues climbed 31 percent.
The San Diego, California-based genomic technologies company reported total Q1 revenues of $782 million compared to $598 million in Q1 2017, beating analysts' average estimate of $743.5 million.
Total Q1 2018 revenue included $628 million in product revenue and $154 million in service and other revenue, up from $491 million and $107 million, respectively, in the previous year's quarter.
Sequencing instrument revenue was up 18 percent year over year at $112 million, driven by NovaSeq, while sequencing consumables revenue climbed 31 percent year over year to $417 million, Illumina Chief Financial Officer,Sam Samad said during a conference call discussing the company's Q1 2018 performance.
On the microarray side, instrument sales were $6 million, a 10 percent year-over-year increase, while consumables jumped 26 percent to $87 million.
In a statement, Illumina President and CEO Francis deSouza said that the firm's growth was driven by "growing adoption of applications spanning oncology, clinical and non-clinical research, population genomics, and personal genomics."
The company also said that it received a product approval certificate from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in South Korea for its NextSeq 550Dx instrument in the quarter.
Illumina's Q1 2018 net income was $208 million, or $1.41 per share, compared to $367 million, or $2.48 per share, in Q1 2017. The difference was primarily due to the impact of a pre-tax gain last year of $453 million as a result of Grail repurchasing shares from Illumina. Its non-GAAP net income was $214 million, or $1.45 per share, up from $94 million, or $.64 per share, in Q1 2017. Wall Street analysts estimated EPS at $1.02.
The company projects that in 2018 total revenues will grow between 15 percent and 16 percent with EPS of $4.45 to $4.55 and non-GAAP EPS of $4.75 to $4.85.
The revised revenue guidance reflects higher consumable revenue as well as projected milestone payments associated with recently announced oncology collaborations, Samad said. "We're very encouraged by trends in the sequencing consumable business," he added.
William Quirk, a senior research analyst with PiperJaffray, wrote in a note to investors following the call that the growth in both sequencing and array consumables were the "brightest spots" in the quarter, attributable to the customers' transition from HiSeq instruments to NovaSeq as well as interest in consumer genomics. He added that PiperJaffray anticipates the array business to "remain strong due to ongoing consumer adoption."
Amanda Murphy, an analyst with William Blair, agreed that consumer demand was likely driving sales in the array business. In a note to investors she wrote that Illumina's array and services businesses are "outperforming," likely due to "interest in consumer-based genotyping products." Although sequencing instrument sales were lower than projected, she noted that Illumina still expected to place 330 to 350 NovaSeq instruments in 2018.
Illumina's R&D expenses were $137 million in Q1 2018, down 6 percent from $145 million in Q1 2017. Its SG&A expenses rose 7 percent in the quarter to $183 million from $171 million in the prior-year period.
Illumina ended the quarter with $1.56 billion in cash and cash equivalents and $813 million in short-term investments.
Illumina's stock was down around 1 percent at $235.3 in Wednesday morning trading.