What happened
Investor sentiment was dimming notably on Berkeley Lights (BLI) Wednesday, with the stock falling by over 9%. This followed the cell biology company's double whiff on Q2 earnings.
So what
Wednesday morning Berkeley Lights revealed that for the quarter, it booked revenue of $19.25 million, a near-doubling of the $10.57 million it made in Q2 2020. Yet net loss worsened across that period, deepening to $18.2 million ($0.27 per share) from the year-ago result of $12.4 million.
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Both headline numbers didn't quite meet analyst projections. On average, prognosticators following the stock were anticipating $19.64 million on the top line, with a per-share net loss of $0.24.
Berkeley Lights said its growth was driven by increased demand for its cell analysis and processing platform, which is a cutting-edge product for the healthcare industry. The company quoted its CEO Eric Hobbs as saying, "We continue to focus on business development partnerships with industry leaders like Thermo Fisher and Bayer, to develop disruptive workflows and services."
The hope is that these partnerships will "not only expand the market opportunities for our platform, but also help us to achieve our mission by accelerating cell and gene therapy products into the clinic," Hobbs added.
Now what
Berkeley Lights expects that this strategy will keep the revenue growth motor humming. The company reaffirmed its top-line guidance for full-year 2021 of $90 million to $100 million, which would represent growth of at least 40% over the 2020 tally. It did not proffer any profitability estimates.
