What happened
After Intrexon (PGEN 6.25%), a company focused on synthetic biology, reported first-quarter earnings, its shares rose 18% as of 11:25 a.m. EDT on Thursday.
So what
Here's a review of the headline numbers from the quarter:
- Revenue grew 24% to $53.7 million. That figure easily exceeded the $48.8 million in revenue that market watchers were looking for.
- Net loss was $31.4 million, or $0.26 per share. That was a bit worse than the $0.23 loss that Wall Street had expected.
- Cash balance at the end of the quarter was $205.2 million.
Financial numbers aside, Intrexon also had a slew of other recent developments to share with investors:
- Intrexon and Darling Ingredients announced that their EnviroFlight joint venture will build a new commercial-scale production facility of insect-based feed ingredients for animal feed.
- The company's reported that its Friendly Aedes mosquitoes achieved greater than 80% suppression of wild Aedes aegypti in Brazil in the second year of the project.
- Intrexon's collaborating partner, Ziopharm Oncology (TCRT 4.23%), reported a successful end-of-phase 2 meeting with the Food and Drug Administration for Ad-RTS-hIL-12 and veledimex in treating recurrent glioblastoma. A pivotal phase 3 trial is currently in the works.
- Ziopharm also announced improved production times in its ongoing phase 1 trial of its second-generation Sleeping Beauty CD19 + CAR-T cells. In addition, a patient with multiple-relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia achieved a complete response and another patient with non-Hodgkin lymphoma was treated with T-cells manufactured by the company in just two weeks.
- Intrexon and Ziopharm also had an IND application accepted by the FDA for a phase 1 study of the company's CD33-specific CAR+ T therapy in refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Enrollment is expected to begin next quarter.
- The company announced the formation of a new subsidiary called Precigen that is designed to "accelerate strategic evaluation of structural alternatives for consolidation of Intrexon's health-related assets to enhance shareholder value and maximize the potential of the Company's programs in health."
- Intrexon and partner Fibrocell Science announced fast-track designation from the FDA for FCX-007 for the treatment of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa.
- Intrexon agreed to acquire GenVec.
- Intrexon completed the listing of its AquaBounty Technologies subsidiary on the Nasdaq.
Traders bid up Intrexon's stock in response to all of this positive news.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
Intrexon continues to offer investors multibagger potential if any of its high-risk projects pay off. However, keeping tabs on all of those projects can be quite difficult, which makes this a stock that requires a tremendous amount of homework. For that reason, this stock should probably only be owned by seasoned investors who are comfortable with volatility.
