NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Pacific Biosciences reported after the close of the market Tuesday that its fourth quarter 2013 revenues grew 54 percent year over year and 23 percent sequentially.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based single-molecule sequencing technologies firm reported Q4 revenues of $9.1 million, compared to just $5.9 million in Q4 2012 and up from $7.4 million in Q3 2013. It matched the consensus Wall Street estimate.
Revenue reflects the installation of five PacBio RS II machines, on par with the year-ago fourth quarter, but one fewer than the previous quarter. Total revenues for the fourth quarter of 2013 also included $1.7 million from its development agreement with Roche Diagnostics.
The company also booked orders for nine PacBio RS II instruments, ending the quarter with 13 systems in backlog.
The company posted a net loss for the quarter of $17.2 million, or $.26 per share, down from its net loss in Q4 2012 of $21.7 million, or $.39 per share, and beating the consensus Wall Street estimate by a penny.
Product revenue was $5.8 million, up from $4.3 million in the year-ago Q4, while service and other revenue was flat at $1.6 million.
Its R&D expenses were $11.1 million, down slightly from $11.7 million in Q4 2012, while SG&A expenses were also down to $9 million from $10.7 million the previous year.
Pacific Biosciences reported full-year 2013 revenues of $28.2 million, up around 8 percent from full-year 2012 revenues of $26 million, and in line with Street estimates.
Its net loss for the year dropped to $79.3 million, or $1.26 per share, from $94.5 million, or $1.69 per share. It just missed analysts' consensus estimates for a loss of $1.25.
The firm's R&D expenses for 2013 dipped to $45.2 million from $47.6 million, while its SG&A spending fell to $38.7 million from $47.7 million.
PacBio finished the year with cash and investments of $112.5 million.
For 2014, "we are forecasting a significant increase in all revenue categories, resulting in at least 55 percent total revenue growth for the year," Ben Gong, the company's VP of finance and treasurer, said on a conference call following the release of the results.
That expected revenue growth includes around $6.8 million in annual revenue, or $1.7 million per quarter, from the Roche agreement. Excluding revenue related to the Roche agreement, "we expect total revenue to grow at least 40 percent from 2013 to 2014," said Gong.
PacBio President and CEO Mike Hunkapiller said on the call that the agreement with Roche "provided us with cash to further invest in developing our products and key applications. In the medium and long term, we believe this will enable us to capture a significant portion of the molecular diagnostic market as a provider of sequencing products to Roche."
He said the firms plan to "work on regulatory clearances in parallel with product development activities in order to be in a position to sell products to this market as soon as possible," adding that the first regulatory clearances are likely around two to three years away.
In Wednesday morning trade on the Nasdaq, shares of PacBio were down 4 percent at $6.89.