What happened
The stock of Pacific Biosciences of California (PACB 6.16%), a company developing DNA sequencing machines, is losing ground after an investor update. Preliminary fourth-quarter sales figures missed expectations, driving the stock 11.8% lower as of 12:54 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
So what
Preliminary sales figures from the fourth quarter weren't bad, but they were slightly less than the market was expecting. The average investment bank analyst covering Pacific Biosciences of California (or PacBio) was expecting $36.6 million in revenue. PacBio stock is falling today because the company reported unaudited fourth-quarter revenue that reached just $36 million.
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Compared to the prior-year period, revenue soared 33%. The company even placed 48 next-generation Sequel systems during the last three months of 2021, which was a new quarterly record.
Now what
The narrow miss probably doesn't warrant such a strong move to the downside. That said, shares of PacBio were trading at some very lofty valuations. Despite the recent losses, the genetic sequencing stock is still trading at around 24.3 times trailing sales.
To provide market-beating gains from its still-lofty valuation, PacBio needs to maintain its current growth rate for at least several more years. A recently expanded collaboration with Invitae (NVTA -55.88%) will help by giving the company a hand in the rapidly expanding field of blood-based cancer detection.
