Berkeley Lights Tumbles After Missing Earnings, Revenue Estimates

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Berkeley Lights Inc’s (NASDAQ:BLI) second-quarter earnings report added weight to its share price decline in 2022 after it missed earnings and revenue estimates.

The company’s shares have fallen 8% Wednesday, while they are down 75% so far in 2022.

The digital cell biology firm reported a second-quarter loss of $0.38 per share, $0.06 worse than the analyst estimate of a $0.32 loss per share. Revenue for the quarter came in at $19.2 million, below the consensus estimate of $20.82 million. In addition, revenue decreased by 1% year-over-year.

In addition, the company said it reduced operating costs through its global workforce reduction of approximately 12% in July and decreased cash burn to roughly $30 million in 2023.

“In the second quarter, we made meaningful progress to transform Berkeley Lights from a technology platform company into a growing, profitable and sustainable life sciences tools and services company,” said Dr. Siddhartha Kadia, chief executive officer of Berkeley Lights.

Berkeley expects full-year 2022 revenue to be approximately in line with full-year 2021 revenue.

Following the report, a JPMorgan analyst downgraded the stock to Neutral from Overweight, lowering the price target to $8 from $12 per share.

“Stepping back, we’re encouraged by the augmented strength of the new management team and we acknowledge new management’s roadmap to turn around the commercial operation and believe many of the initiatives outlined (including new product cycle, new monetization models, and potential M&A) could drive a meaningful inflection in the future commercial trajectory,” said the analyst. “That said, considering the early stages of these initiatives, coupled with a challenging macro environment, near-term visibility is limited. As such, we’re moving to Neutral pending better visibility and execution track record, and we establish a Dec-23 PT of $8 to reflect lower near- and medium-term estimates and an unfavorable macro environment.”