What happened
Shares of Cryoport (CYRX -7.39%), a producer of temperature-controlled packaging, tumbled in early morning trading on Friday, and were down 16% as of 10:25 a.m. EST.
In an earnings pre-announcement released after the close of trading on Thursday, Cryoport told investors that its sales for fiscal Q4 2019, although up strongly year over year at $9.2 million, will probably fall short of analyst expectations for sales of $10.4 million.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
How bad is this news? On the one hand, $9.2 million in sales, while short of analyst expectations, would still be up 61% versus last year's Q4. On the other hand, Cryoport says its total sales for the year ($33.9 million) should be up 73%. So in addition to missing estimates, it also looks like Cryoport's sales growth slowed in Q4.
Now what
CEO Jerrell Shelton played up the positive side of this growth story, saying that the company increased its market share and "experienced strong growth and will report record revenue for the full-year 2019."
Shelton also noted "the potential for new high-revenue commercial opportunities for Cryoport in 2020 and beyond," which suggests that official Q4 earnings, when they eventually come out on March 5, might include positive guidance for the year ahead, counterbalancing the somewhat less-than-optimal news about Q4 revenue.
In other words, as sharply as Cryoport fell today, it could climb right back up in March...if the guidance looks good enough.
