What happened
Quanterix (QTRX 0.25%) was quite the recovery story on Hump Day. The specialty biotech's stock surged nearly 15% higher in price on the day, following Tuesday's near-collapse that saw its shares lose almost 55% of their value. It seems investors were reconsidering their initial reactions to the company's latest quarterly earnings report.
So what
Quanterix didn't have any fresh news to report, which likely contributed to the Wednesday bounce. After all, the latest significant item from the company was its second-quarter results, the direct reason for the stock's deep plunge the previous day. Concurrently, the company also announced the departure of Executive Chairman E. Kevin Hrusovsky. No news is good news for a business that recently delivered such twin-barreled disappointments.
As expected, immediately following such a quarter, some analysts revised their takes on Quanterix stock on Wednesday. Cowen (COWN) and SVB Leerink went as far as to downgrade their recommendations: Both companies feel Quanterix is now a market perform (read: hold). Previously, the pair had the stock at outperform (buy).
Cowen analyst Max Masucci wrote in a fresh research note on the biotech that his move was "reflecting limited visibility into the specific initiatives (and timing of key milestones) included in QTRX's newly announced business realignment."
Now what
Yet Quanterix's Q2 results did contain several rays of optimism to bring some bulls back to the stock on Wednesday. Chief among these was the company's belief that it will find its groove again and return to its former double-digit sales growth by 2024. Although the top line should be flat this year and likely uninspiring in 2023, the promise of the company hopping on the growth train anew was inspiring some hope.
