Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Organovo Holdings (ONVO 3.54%), a three-dimensional biology company focused on developing 3-D bioprinting technology, jumped as much as 17% after reporting its second-quarter earnings results and providing a business update.
So what: For the quarter, Organovo produced just $23,000 in revenue from collaborations -- keep in mind this is a wholly developmental-stage company that isn't expected to produce any revenue until the release of a liver toxicity assay product in 2014. Net loss totaled $10.4 million, or an adjusted $0.14 per share, which reversed an adjusted gain of $38.5 million or $0.69 in the year prior. There is no Wall Street coverage on Organovo, thus no estimates to compare these results against.
What appears to be exciting shareholders the most today is confirmation from Organovo CEO Keith Murphy that the company remains on track to release its first product commercially (the aforementioned liver toxicity assay test) next year. Organovo has, up until now, funded itself by issuing shares, so the possibility that product-based revenue generation could be right around the corner has investors intrigued.
Now what: I'm not going to deny that 3-D bioprinting is an exciting area of potential growth in the health care space, but I also won't start counting my chickens before they're hatched. Organovo has a long way to go to become profitable and even to successfully launching its first product. I would suggest not getting caught up in the emotional investing that seems to dominate anything involving the words "3-D printing" and instead wait for tangible results from Organovo that can help you make a smart long-term investing decision.
