Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (PACB) Q3 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good day, and welcome to the PacBio Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Marissa Bych, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and welcome to PacBio's third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. With me today are Mark Van Oene, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Bill Meyer, Chief Accounting Officer. Earlier today, we issued a press release outlining the financial results we'll be discussing on today's call. A copy of which is available on the Investors section of our website at www.pacb.com or as furnished on Form 8-K available on the Securities and Exchange Commission website, www.sec.gov. A copy of our earnings presentation is also available on the Investors section of our website. On today's call, we will make forward-looking statements, including, among others, statements providing predictions, estimates, expectations and guidance. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they are subject to assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or discussed. Please review our SEC filings, including our most recent Form 10-Q and 10-K and our press release to better understand the risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ. We disclaim any obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. We also present certain financial information on a non-GAAP basis, which is not prepared under a comprehensive set of accounting rules and should only be used to supplement an understanding of the company's operating results as reported under U.S. GAAP. Reconciliations between historical U.S. GAAP and non-GAAP results are presented in our earnings release, which is available on the Investors section of our website. For future periods, we're unable to reconcile non-GAAP gross margin and non-GAAP operating expenses without unreasonable effort because certain items that impact these measures, including restructuring and related charges, settlement charges and costs related to the disposition of short-read assets are out of our control or cannot be reasonably predicted at this time and their probable significance cannot be determined. A recording of today's call will be available shortly after the live call in the Investors section of our website. Those electing to use the replay are cautioned that forward-looking statements may differ or change materially after the completion of the live call. And with that, I will turn the call over to Mark.

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. In the third quarter, we continued the launch of SPRQ-Nx chemistry. Over half of Revio consumable revenue came from customers using SPRQ-Nx. And by quarter end, 2/3 of our Revio installed base had opted to upgrade their software. Adoption continues to climb globally, and we expect the vast majority of the installed base to opt in by year-end. SPRQ-Nx is also driving higher utilization. Some customers are running the same pool of samples 3 times. Others are running different samples of each acquisition as they adopt SPRQ-Nx into their workflows. Our USD 345 list price for 20x HiFi human genome has also helped us finalize multiple strategic deals that validate our thesis on the role of PacBio HiFi in clinical genomics and AI. I will cover those in detail shortly. We are focused on improving our commercial execution. In the third quarter, we delivered $40.6 million in revenue, a step-up from $38.4 million in the prior year period and $39 million in the second quarter. Revio placements grew 15% year-over-year. We continue to see customers expand their Revio fleets with multisystem orders to take on large projects and programs enabled by the economics and advancement of SPRQ-Nx. Consumables grew sequentially as customers committed to several large strategic programs. Looking closer at our consumables performance in the quarter, total consumable revenue was $20.8 million, up from $20.1 million last quarter. The sequential improvement reflects the SPRQ-Nx transition, which remains a process as customers validate multi-use workflows, consume existing SPRQ inventory and establish routine reorder patterns. Within consumables, we continue to see adoption in the clinical market. We expect clinical shipments to keep growing as customers move to full commercialization of their tests. Revio pull-through was approximately $204,000 this quarter, and we remain on track for full year consumables pull-through of $200,000 to $225,000 per Revio system due to the pace of demand we are experiencing today. In the third quarter, we saw the first wave of SPRQ-Nx consumable reorders as accounts work through their new inventory. We expect more reorders in the coming months, and we anticipate higher pull-through in 2027 and beyond as improved cost per genome economics support higher utilization. Turning to instruments. Instrument revenue in the third quarter was $13.2 million, an increase of 17% from $11.3 million in the third quarter of 2025. We placed 15 Revio systems, bringing cumulative shipments to 381. An additional 10 systems went to Berry Genomics for a major genomic study in China on Birth Defects. Berry is building a multiple system Revio fleet to sequence HiFi genomes at scale. This deal extends the pattern we have seen of large customers expanding their fleets because SPRQ-Nx made larger programs economically viable. We also continue to see specific clinical customers exit R&D mode and move into routine production sequencing with our HiFi technology. In Q3, 53% of Revio placements were to new customers and 27% were sold as part of multi-instrument purchase orders. We were especially pleased to support a return to growth for Vega following the August launch of SPRQ-Nx on Vega, which increases the output 50% from 60 gigabases to 90 gigabases. For the quarter, we placed 35 Vega systems, up 9% year-over-year and 35% sequentially, bringing cumulative shipments to 235. U.S. Public Health Labs, a segment we deliberately built out, continue to purchase Vega systems this quarter, and we expect more consistent utilization from these accounts as they ramp. Over 90% of Vega shipments in Q3 went to new customers. We believe the launch has strengthened Vega's value proposition and gives us a clear path to higher utilization as the installed base develops. However, we continue to see uneven capital purchasing trends, particularly in the Americas, given the academic and government funding environment. Growing in the clinical market remains a central focus for us. Europe remains our strongest clinical market in part because its health care systems are consolidated. Rare disease is a good example where our opportunity goes beyond replacing the clinical exome. Consolidating the multiple tests required for rare disease onto a single HiFi workflow makes economic sense for European labs that see a few thousand patients per year. In the third quarter, we brought our success from European labs to the U.S. with our early success resting on economics. We are showing that faster, more complete results in one workflow, lower operating costs. It remains early days, and we believe we have the right to win in this market opportunity. This brings me to the strategic deals that are actively expanding our footprint. Customers are now using PacBio technology and data as infrastructure for large genomic programs, national research initiatives, biological AI and therapeutic discovery. We believe SPRQ-Nx is putting us at the start of an inflection. I will start with the clinical market. It's a high priority segment for us. Most recently, GeneDx announced plans to add long-read whole genome sequencing to its genome testing portfolio. Long-read sequencing reads longer stretches of DNA, so it captures complex variation that short-read sequencing can miss, including certain structural variants and repeat expansions. GeneDx plans to deploy long-read in rare disease, which expands our footprint in a core clinical market. Berry Genomics is another example. The 10 Revios it added support a 5-year national rare disease program in China backed by the China Birth Defect Intervention and Assistance Foundation. In the near term, the program aims to raise the diagnostic rate for patients whose disease went undiagnosed after short-read exome sequencing or genome sequencing. Over time, it is meant to build the capacity of local hospitals to diagnose rare disease and support continued academic research. This win matters for us for 3 reasons. First, it puts HiFi long-read genome sequencing directly into the diagnostic workflow for patients that short-reads could not solve. Second, it drives near-term consumable demand. And finally, it opens the Chinese clinical long-read market with a path to extend this program across 40 hospitals. We continue to hold a strong position in academic and government research, even as funding remains difficult in the United States. Sampled, one of our important high-utilization Revio customers was recently awarded a 5-year contract from the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide genomic analysis for the Million Veteran Program. The program has enrolled more than 1 million veterans and is one of the largest research programs of its kind in the world. Sampled has supported it for years, including long-read whole genome sequencing on our Revio systems, and we believe the renewal reflects the confidence in our work together. For PacBio, the award places HiFi sequencing inside a flagship U.S. government research program and also shows how service providers are building Revio capacity around large, long duration studies. Another strategic focus for us is becoming the foundational data layer for AI models, and we are making meaningful progress. Sophisticated models need large volumes of the highest quality data and PacBio's HiFi is exactly what they're looking for. Our multiyear strategic collaboration with Verily Health puts PacBio at the center of biomedical AI infrastructure. Better models need deeper biological data. And right now, that data is still fragmented and hard to link to clinical records. Together, we intend to connect those steps. HiFi long-read data will combine with real-world clinical data at population scale, producing AI-ready data sets for discovery and model training. The foundation is in place. HiFi whole genome workflows already run end-to-end in Verily Pre and Workbench serves more than 20,000 researchers. This work goes well beyond an infrastructure license. The value lies in connecting genomics, medical records and AI. We are proud that PacBio can provide a differentiated genomic layer within those richer data sets. Since the announcement, the response has been encouraging. Biobanks, biopharma companies and health systems have all expressed interest as well as developers of therapeutic and biological AI models. These groups share a common need for deep, well-linked genomic data and their interest validates PacBio's place in AI. We also recently announced a collaboration with TychoBio, an AI drug discovery company. TychoBio plans to use HiFi and Kinnex long-read RNA sequencing across more than 10,000 samples to build full-length RNA data sets that connect RNA therapy designs to their effects across the transcriptome. Those data sets are expected to train models to predict on-target efficacy, duration of effect and unintended off-target effects. Full length RNA is especially relevant in rare disease because it captures isoforms, splicing, variation and transcriptome-wide effects. This collaboration extends our role in rare disease beyond characterizing and diagnosing disease and toward potentially developing therapies. On Basecamp research, we continue to execute on the Trillion Gene Atlas collaboration. And in the third quarter, we continued sequencing and delivering hundreds of samples every week. In Q3, Basecamp also announced $140 million in financing to advance its AI designed therapeutic pipeline, which we believe is important external validation of the need for HiFi data at this scale. A year ago, none of these programs were in place. Together, they show PacBio's role in AI is accelerating. As AI becomes more central to biology and medicine, the value of accurate, information-rich genomic data rises with it. With SPRQ-Nx and our upcoming high-throughput launch, we have the right tools for this moment. We are seeing the earliest work showing signs that PacBio data can participate across the full continuum from understanding disease to diagnosing it to designing therapies. This is an emerging opportunity, and these deals show a role for PacBio that extends well beyond sequencing. Before I turn over the line, I would like to acknowledge and thank Jim Gibson, who has served as our Chief Financial Officer for the past 1.5 years. Jim has stepped down as Chief Financial Officer, and we have begun a search for a new Chief Financial Officer. We are working to execute a smooth transition. And today, I'd like to welcome Bill Meyer, who has been appointed Chief Accounting Officer and will serve as Principal Accounting Officer, to walk through our third quarter results and full year guidance. Bill, please go ahead.

Thank you, Mark. I will discuss non-GAAP results, which include noncash stock-based compensation expenses. I encourage you to review the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures in our earnings press release. Unless otherwise noted, all growth rates are year-over-year. We reported total revenue of $40.6 million in the third quarter of 2026 compared to $38.4 million in the third quarter of 2025, reflecting 6% growth year-over-year. Instrument revenue in the third quarter was $13.2 million, an increase of 16% from $11.3 million in the third quarter of 2025, primarily driven by strong Revio placements in EMEA and higher Vega shipments, partially offset by continued capital spending constraints in the Americas. We sold 15 Revio systems, up from 13 in the prior year and 35 Vega systems, up from 32, ending the quarter with cumulative shipments of 381 Revio systems and 235 Vega systems. Revio average selling prices improved sequentially, supported by favorable customer mix and strong pricing in EMEA. Turning to Consumables. Revenue of $20.8 million compared to $21.3 million in the third quarter of 2025 and increased approximately 3% sequentially from $20.1 million last quarter, with annualized Revio pull-through per system at approximately $204,000. Sequential growth was driven by improving demand in the Americas and China as SPRQ-Nx adoption continued to expand. Year-over-year performance remained impacted by customers working through existing reagent inventory and transitioning to multi-use workflows with sequencing activity growing faster than consumable purchases. Finally, Service and other revenue was $6.6 million compared to $5.8 million in the third quarter of 2025, primarily reflecting growth in Revio service contracts as our installed base expanded, particularly in the Americas, along with continued contributions from strategic customer programs. From a regional perspective, Americas revenue of $18.2 million was up slightly compared to the third quarter of 2025. Instrument revenue declined approximately 24% as ongoing NIH and broader academic funding uncertainty continue to weigh on capital purchasing decisions. This was offset by approximately 9% Consumables growth, driven by commercial customers and increased sequencing activity across the installed base. Although broadly, capital spending remained constrained, we also continue to see demand for Vega among public health laboratories. Asia Pacific revenue of $8.3 million decreased 13% compared to the third quarter of 2025, but increased 19% sequentially, reflecting improving activity in China, including the Berry Genomics' Birth Defects program. China consumables grew approximately 10% year-over-year, supported by SPRQ-Nx adoption and growing demand from sequencing service providers. Regional performance continued to be impacted by the completion of a significant population sequencing program, funding constraints in Japan and Korea and customers transitioning existing reagent inventories. EMEA revenue of $14 million increased 30% compared to the third quarter of 2025, driven by strong Revio placements at favorable pricing and continued clinical adoption. EMEA accounted for the majority of Revio placements, including a multisystem order at a leading European clinical institution, while growing sequencing activity and clinical utilization demonstrated continued demand for HiFi. Consumables revenue remained impacted by the SPRQ-Nx transition despite higher sequencing activity, and we continue to view EMEA's clinical engagement model as an important driver of future growth. Moving down the P&L. Third quarter non-GAAP gross profit of $14.6 million represented a non-GAAP gross margin of 36% compared to a non-GAAP gross profit of $16.2 million or a gross margin of 42% in the third quarter of 2025. Non-GAAP gross margin declined primarily due to higher memory costs and Vega manufacturing transition costs. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $47 million in the third quarter of 2026, a 13% decrease from $53.9 million in the third quarter of 2025. The year-over-year decline reflects continued expense discipline across the organization, while maintaining investment in our highest strategic priorities. Operating expenses in the third quarter included $8 million of noncash share-based compensation compared to $10.1 million in the prior year period. Regarding headcount, we ended the quarter with 445 employees compared to 485 at the end of 2025 and 491 at the end of the third quarter of 2025. Non-GAAP net loss was $32.8 million, representing $0.11 per share in the third quarter of 2026 compared to a non-GAAP net loss of $36.8 million, representing $0.12 per share in the third quarter of 2025. We ended the third quarter with approximately $199.4 million in unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and investments compared with $279.5 million at December 31, 2025. Turning to our full year outlook. We are narrowing our full year revenue guidance to $155 million to $160 million. We expect SPRQ-Nx adoption to continue building through the end of this year as customers complete workflow validation and transition existing reagent inventories. We continue to assume no meaningful recovery in academic and government funding, particularly in the Americas and a gradual recovery in China. We continue to expect non-GAAP gross margin to be in the range of 35% to 37% for 2026. Turning to our cash outlook. We continue to expect to end the year with approximately $175 million to $185 million in cash. We now expect non-GAAP operating expenses to be in the range of $203 million to $207 million from the prior range of $215 million to $220 million due to savings from our restructuring. Looking ahead, we continue to expect cash burn to step down meaningfully in 2027, supported by a lower operating expense base compared to 2025. This reflects $15 million to $20 million in expected annual savings from reduced compensation-related expenses following our restructuring and an additional $15 million to $20 million in annual savings as development spending on our high throughput platform widens down. We continue to expect to achieve cash flow breakeven in 2028. I will now turn the call back to Mark for closing remarks.

Thanks, Bill. The third quarter gave us clear proof points on PacBio's strategic direction and our potential for growth. Our team recently returned from ASHG in Montreal, where customer interest in HiFi was strong, we received significant interest from attendees following GeneDx's decision to add long-read whole genome sequencing to its testing portfolio, and we hosted an engaging dialogue with Dr. Alex Hoischen from Radboud University in the Netherlands, highlighting his experience with the new chemistry and the implications of improving workflow and economics. Back to our Q3 accomplishments. Our commercial execution improved, and we completed important deals in clinical and bioAI customer segments. This work will take time to translate to meaningful revenue and ultimately cash generation, but our strong early traction with SPRQ-Nx gives me real confidence in where PacBio is headed. I'm excited to lead the company as we expand HiFi sequencing across the academic and medical communities and ultimately enable the promise of genomics to better human health. With that, we will open the line. Bill and I are available for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Dan Brennan with TD Cowen.

Pradeep on for Dan. You've indicated recently that clinical represents about mid-teens percent of NGS consumables. What did this grow in this quarter? And has it been faster or slower than the first half trend?

Yes. Thanks for the question. We remain really encouraged by the clinical business and the growth within that. The growth rate, it bounces around a little bit quarter-over-quarter, as you might imagine, but we're consistently seeing a quarter -- or year-over-year growth, sorry, of over 20% on the clinical business on the consumable product line. And it's growing now where it's now exceeding 20% of our overall business. And so it is the growth driver of PacBio right now, as you've seen from some of the adoption around the world and more recently here in the United States as well. So really encouraged with SPRQ-Nx adoption and the opportunity that's affording us for clinical whole genome sequencing.

The next question comes from Doug Schenkel with UBS.

This is Adrian on for Doug. Just one on the balance sheet. So you kept the $175 million to $185 million year-end cash target, which implies Q4 burn of about $15 million to $25 million versus the $37 million in Q3. So I guess what drives that drop in Q4? And then does your plan to reach breakeven in '28 include the $200 million convert due in 2029?

Sure, Dan. Yes, the cash burn, we do anticipate going down in Q4. We burned some cash in Q3 from working capital just related to the timing of some of our payables and a couple of extended receivables that we strategically chose to do towards the end of Q2. So certainly, we are guiding cash burn down in Q4. As it relates to the debt, yes, we continue to service the debt at very favorable debt service costs. And we will continue that with the $200 million and the $400 million coming due in 2029 and 2030.

Yes. So given the attractive terms and the duration on the debt, I don't believe there's an immediate need to address the maturity prematurely. And we've got great relationships with both of the holders of the convertibles and they continue to demonstrate some flexibility as we manage our capital structures in the past with both of them. So for now, it really is how we just make sure that we're heads down and focused on executing our underlying business. If we can execute on our product road map and grow our revenue, the way we anticipate it growing and moving towards cash flow breakeven, we'll be in a better -- much stronger position to address the debt from that greater position of financial and strategic flexibility down the road. So no immediate burning needed in our minds.

The next question comes from Mason Carrico with Stephens.

This is Ben on for Mason. For the accounts that have fully transitioned to SPRQ-Nx, what does their revenue per instrument look like today relative to where it was on the first SPRQ chemistry? Is that elasticity really starting to show up? Or is it still early days?

Yes. Thanks for the question. SPRQ-Nx is one of my top priorities during this transition and making sure that we transition it well into the installed base. And so I'm really encouraged to see around 50% of our shipments and revenue now coming from the SPRQ-Nx portion of the revenue consumables. So that's showing you the transition and the economics that are driving this rapidly. And as I mentioned, more than 2/3 of the installed base has upgraded their software to enable them to use this. In terms of the sample elasticity portion of the question, we do see us exiting this year having covered that 30% price decrease. And remember that, that was part of the plan of how do we get through by the end of 2026, the 3% price decrease to show that we can continue to grow the sample elasticity on that. We do expect in 2027 to return back to that 225 to 250 pull-through range for consumables afforded by this transition in the SPRQ-Nx consumables. So all positive and really optimistic with the performance of the product as well as some of the new business and installed base growth that is lending to us for the Revio fleet.

The next question comes from Luke Sergott with Barclays.

Mark, I don't think you can wear more hats. I had to get my joke in there. Can you just give us an update on the high throughput box, any development time lines we can look out for, how the progress is going? Any kind of hurdles you guys are trying to work through right now because it feels like you got SPRQ-Nx out, that's the hard part on the chemistry. And then the high throughput box coming through is really kind of positioned for a lot of these partnerships you guys are landing over the last 6 months. So incredibly important for like your out-year trajectory?

Yes. Priority #1 for R&D, even after our restructuring was making sure that we maintain fully resourced team on the high throughput platform. The product development remains on track. We're still anticipating a commercial launch by the end of next year. So nothing is changing there. And we're working on everything we can to try to accelerate this given the dynamics you're noticing is these are larger projects with much higher sample volume than revenue by itself can support. And the Berry Genomics program in China is one of those great examples is 8 to 10 Revio is going to support whole genome sequencing for Birth Defects is exactly the type of opportunity that the high throughput platform will much more easily support for us. And so we're strategically pricing some of these large-scale programs right now in anticipation for it and fully on track and fully resourced from an R&D perspective to get this out there in next year.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Jack Meehan with Operon Research.

I was wondering if you could elaborate a little bit more on some of the regional trends in the quarter? Europe continues to be a bright spot. I was curious how much of this is coming from clinical versus research? And then in Asia-Pac, Mark, I was wondering if you could just talk about Singapore, and Precise had their update, looked like they were choosing Illumina and Ultima. I was wondering if you thought there was an opportunity for PacBio or how you're going to participate in that?

Yes. Thanks, Jack. So I'll deal with the clinical question first. So yes, as a -- from a regional perspective, EMEA is outgrowing AMR and APAC, as I think you can see, and we've included some of those details in the slide deck for you as well. And that really is the clinical success that started first in Europe, and we're starting to see now move across to both APAC, especially China in some of the Americas with some of the more recent launches from groups like GeneDx. And so EMEA is leading the way, it's still less than half the business in Europe. So I don't even think that it's the majority of our business anywhere in the world. It's still less than half of the business in Europe, but it is growing and it's the fastest-growing segment for us across all 3 regions right now. In terms of -- sorry, your second part of the question, Jack. So you had the regional perspective. What was the second part of your question?

PRECISE -- Can you hear me?

PRECISE. Yes, I hear you, Jack. It was PRECISE. Yes. So the PRECISE program, we learned this a while ago. So they have announced the first part of this phase. And so if you step back a year that this phase was supposed to be 400,000 samples for the PRECISE program in Singapore. They've awarded the first 200,000 samples of that. And so that was, what you mentioned, was won by Illumina and then a subset of those by Ultima Genomics. They still have the remainder of that to work through. And so it's not completely awarded yet. And then I'm still optimistic that there will be a long-read component for DNA, RNA or both as a part of the rest of this phase of the PRECISE program in Singapore.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mark Van Oene for any closing remarks.

I'd just like to end with a thank you to our employees, our customers and our shareholders for your continued commitment to PacBio as we work to turn the strength of this technology into sustainable growth. So thank you, everyone.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.