NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Pacific Biosciences reported after the close of the market Wednesday that its first quarter 2014 revenues more than doubled year over year and grew 27 percent sequentially.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based single-molecule sequencing technologies firm reported Q1 revenues of $11.6 million, compared to $5.6 million in Q1 2013 and up from $9.1 million in Q4 2013. It beat the consensus Wall Street estimate of $10.1 million.
Its product revenue jumped to $7.9 million from $3.8 million, while its service and other revenue increased to $2.1 million from $1.7 million. Consumable revenue was $2.5 million, up from $1.9 million. Revenues for Q1 2014 also included $1.7 million from PacBio's development agreement with Roche Diagnostics.
As a result of its Q1 performance, PacBio is now forecasting a 70 percent increase in its 2014 revenues to a range of $47 million to $48 million from $28.2 million in 2013, company officials said during a conference call following the release of the results. Previously, the firm had projected a 55 percent increase in its full-year revenues over 2013.
Investors reacted favorably to the results and forecast, sending PacBio's shares up nearly 21 percent to $5.33 in Thursday morning trade on the Nasdaq.
"We expect significant year-over-year increases in revenue for each quarter this year," Ben Gong, VP of finance and treasurer, said during the call. "We are pleased with the system bookings we achieved in the first quarter and the continuing solid system utilization that is driving year-over-year growth in consumable sales."
This week, the company also announced that it had sold two systems to HLA typing firm HistoGenetics, and CEO Mike Hunkapiller said during the call that HLA typing represents a new opportunity for PacBio, although it is still early.
"A lot of the key opinion leaders within the HLA community have realized that what they really need is to look at the entire [HLA] gene as a whole," Hunkapiller said. We've been working with several labs for quite a while now to demonstrate that the long-read sequencing technology gives them exactly what they'd like to have."
Revenue for the quarter reflected the installation of nine PacBio RS II systems, compared to three in the first quarter of 2013 and five in the previous quarter. The company booked nine PacBio RS II systems in the quarter, finishing with 13 in its backlog.
The company posted a net loss for the quarter of $18.9 million, or $.28 per share, down from its net loss of $21.1 million, or $.37 per share, in the first quarter of 2013, and matching the consensus Wall Street estimate.
Its R&D expenses were $11.8 million, down around 2 percent from $12 million in Q1 2013, while SG&A expenses were down 4 percent to $9.2 million from $9.6 million in the previous year.
As of March 31, it had cash and investments totaling $118.7 million.