Why Ascendis Pharma Stock Tumbled by 11% Today

An earnings miss and sharply reduced guidance for its ONE commercialized product doomed Ascendis Pharma (ASND 0.70%) to a bad Wednesday on the stock market. The biotech's shares fell by more than 11% in price after it divulged its latest set of quarterly results. By comparison, the bellwether S&P 500 index suffered a relatively modest drop of 0.2%.

Declines and misses in the second quarter

Ascendis, a biotech based in Denmark, took the wraps off its second quarter soon after market hours on Tuesday. The company posted revenue of slightly under 36 million euros ($40 million) for the period, a figure that was well down from the more than 47 million euros ($52 million) it earned in the same quarter of 2023.

More encouragingly, Ascendis managed to narrow its net loss over that stretch of time. Its deficit was a bit more than 109 million euros ($120 million), which equates to 1.91 euros ($2.11) per share. The year-ago shortfall was almost 122 million euros ($135 million).

Still, it didn't meet the average analyst estimate for either revenue or profitability. The consensus prognosticator figure for the former was almost 84 million euros ($93 million) and for net loss was 1.36 euros ($1.50) per share.

The bulk of the company's revenue came from Skytrofa, a growth hormone deficiency treatment. That was something of an issue as the drug's sales fell by 27% year over year to 26 million euros ($29 million). Ascendis said that volume growth nearly doubled, but this dynamic "was offset by the cost associated with broader market access."

Guidance reduced for top-drug's sales

Since Skytrofa remains foundational to Ascendis' business, investors were discouraged by management's updated guidance for the drug's full-year 2024 sales. The company now anticipates it will bring in 220 million euros to 240 million euros ($243 million to $265 million). Formerly, it was modeling 320 million euros to 340 million euros ($354 million to $376 million). Meanwhile, both ranges sit below the average analyst forecast of nearly 351 million euros ($388 million).