360Dx Top 30 Drops 5 Percent in June

NEW YORK – The 360Dx Top 30 dropped 5 percent month over month in June after rebounding slightly in May, likely due to macroeconomic turmoil.

The Top 30 fared better than the broader market as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 7 percent month over month and the Nasdaq fell 9 percent. Meantime, the Nasdaq Biotech Index ticked up 1 percent.

The Top 30's highest gainers were Accelerate Diagnostics (+62 percent), Genetron (+22 percent), and Burning Rock Biotech (+21 percent). The decliners were led by Renalytix (-38 percent), Invitae (-34 percent), and Exact Sciences (-21 percent). Except for Exact Sciences, each of the highest gainers or decliners had a starting share price under $4.00, making them particularly susceptible to market fluctuations and likely impacting the gains and losses.

Accelerate Diagnostics had no significant news last month to explain its gain.

Genetron, however, saw a boost from the announcement of its Q1 2022 revenues early in June. The firm reported that its Q1 revenues rose nearly 20 percent year over year, driven by increased revenues from cancer diagnosis and monitoring tests, as well as development services.

Burning Rock Biotech also had limited news in June but announced that its board of directors authorized a share repurchase plan for an aggregate value of up to $10 million. The board also passed a motion to pursue an alternative listing of the firm's Class A ordinary shares on an internationally recognized stock exchange.

Among the decliners, the key news from Renalytix came at the end of the month. The company announced earlier this week that its fiscal Q3 revenues rose 31 percent year over year due to an increase in revenue from its KidneyIntelX test but missed consensus Wall Street estimates. The firm's net loss rose to $14.7 million from $8.8 million a year earlier.

In a note to investors, JP Morgan analyst Rachel Vatnsdal said that, despite favorable trends in the chronic kidney disease market and the global opportunity for the company, "we continue to have limited visibility on the timing and success of the commercial scale-up in the near term exacerbated" by the Q3 results.

She added that management said the revenue ramp "will likely take longer than had been previously expected" but said the company is expecting several key milestones throughout the rest of the year.

Invitae also had limited news last month to explain its decline.

Exact Sciences, meantime, entered into a long-term supply agreement with Ultima Genomics for Ultima's next-generation sequencing technology last month. The companies plan to develop one or more of Exact's cancer diagnostic tests using Ultima's sequencing technology. Along with the deal, Exact became an investor in the firm as part of a Series E financing, which exited stealth mode at the end of May with $600 million in funding. It also joined the company's early-access program for its UG 100 high-throughput sequencing platform.

William Blair's Brian Weinstein wrote in a note to investors that Exact's investment is "unlikely a significant amount" and sees it "more as a strategic use of cash." He added that management said the investment helped in negotiations of the supply agreement.

Weinstein also said that "should the promise of Ultima's cost and speed advantages play out, we do not believe it is inconceivable for Cologuard … to be moved over" to Ultima's NGS platform. In addition to current products, Exact will look at using Ultima's platform for pipeline products, such as the multicancer test in development.

*Becton Dickinson paid a dividend of $.87 per share on June 8.

**Danaher paid a dividend of $.25 per share on June 23. 

***Thermo Fisher Scientific paid a dividend of $.30 per share on June 14.