NEW YORK – Fulgent Genetics on Friday reported that its first quarter core revenues grew 150 percent year over year, though its reported revenues declined 79 percent overall due to an expected drop in COVID-related revenues.
As a result of the strong core growth, the company raised its full-year revenue guidance to $250 million from a previous guidance of $240 million.
"We are raising our guidance for the year due to our outperformance in the first quarter," Fulgent CFO Paul Kim said in a statement. "While we are still not guiding to COVID-19 revenue, we are pleased with our results in the core business and continue to see financial strength. Our cash position continues to afford us the flexibility to be opportunistic and strategic in building a sustainable business for the long term."
For the three months ended March 31, the El Monte, California-based company reported revenues of $66.2 million compared to $320.3 million a year ago, besting guidance of $56.0 million that the company provided in late February and analysts' average estimate of $60.0 million. Core revenues excluding COVID-19 testing products and services (including COVID-19 sequencing revenue) were $62.7 million compared to $25.1 million in the year-ago quarter.
In a statement, Fulgent Chairman and CEO Ming Hsieh said that the company saw Q1 strength in its core genetics business across three main areas: precision diagnostics, anatomic pathology, and pharma services.
He also noted that the company is encouraged by early interest in its Beacon 787 Expanded Carrier Screening Panel to detect 787 genes associated with autosomal recessive and X-linked conditions.
Fulgent reported a Q1 net loss of $15.3 million, or $.52 per share, compared to a profit of $154.0 million, or $4.93 per share, a year ago. Fulgent reported an adjusted loss per share of $.22, better than the Wall Street estimate of a $.43 loss per share.
Fulgent's Q1 R&D spending grew 63 percent to $9.8 million, whiles its SG&A expenses retreated 5 percent to $31.9 million.
The company finished the quarter with $66.2 million in cash and cash equivalents and $805.1 million in investments in marketable securities.
In addition to the increase in full-year revenue guidance, Fulgent reiterated that it expects a full-year net loss of approximately $2.50 per share, or $1.25 per share on an adjusted basis. Fulgent also said that it expects second quarter revenues of approximately $62 million.
In early Friday trading on the Nasdaq, shares of Fulgent were up more than 12 percent at $31.96.