Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ:PACB) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.01 EPS

Key Points

• PacBio missed quarterly earnings estimates, reporting an adjusted loss of $0.14 per share versus the $0.13 expected, while revenue was approximately $39 million and flat year over year.
• The company lowered its 2026 revenue outlook to $155 million–$165 million, cited weaker Vega placements and gross-margin pressure, and pushed expected cash-flow breakeven to 2028.
• New CEO Mark Van Oene will focus on clinical-market expansion and SMRT Next adoption; however, shares fell 10.4% to $1.29, and analysts’ consensus rating remains “Reduce.”

Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ:PACB - Get Free Report) issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The biotechnology company reported ($0.14) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.13) by ($0.01), FiscalAI reports. Pacific Biosciences of California had a negative net margin of 80.35% and a negative return on equity of 571.06%.

Here are the key takeaways from Pacific Biosciences of California's conference call:

• Leadership transition: Christian Henry stepped down as CEO and will remain on PacBio’s board as an advisor, with Mark Van Oene taking over immediately and prioritizing clinical-market expansion, SMRT Next adoption, and leaner execution.
• SMRT Next momentum is encouraging, with more than one-third of the installed base enabling the new software in June. PacBio expects the multi-use chemistry, which lowers the listed cost of a 20x HiFi genome by 30%, to drive higher throughput, larger population-scale projects, and improved utilization over time.
• Second-quarter revenue was $39 million, roughly flat year over year, while Vega placements declined to 26 from 38 amid academic and government funding constraints. PacBio lowered its 2026 revenue outlook to $155 million–$165 million and expects consumables pull-through of only $200,000–$225,000 per Revio system.
• Non-GAAP gross margin fell to 36% due to compute and memory costs, lower manufacturing volumes, and $1.1 million of Vega manufacturing-transition expenses. The company now expects 2026 gross margin of 35%–37% and cash-flow breakeven in 2028, a year later than previously anticipated, despite planned restructuring savings.
• Clinical adoption continues to strengthen, particularly in EMEA, where revenue grew 52% year over year and clinical consumables shipments rose 67% globally. Recent publications supporting HiFi sequencing for rare-disease diagnostics and other clinical applications could help accelerate payer and health-system adoption.

Pacific Biosciences of California Trading Down 10.4%

Shares of Pacific Biosciences of California stock traded down $0.15 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $1.29. The company's stock had a trading volume of 11,563,018 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,571,097. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $1.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $400.67 million, a P/E ratio of -3.00 and a beta of 2.31. Pacific Biosciences of California has a one year low of $1.09 and a one year high of $2.73.

Institutional Trading of Pacific Biosciences of California

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Zacks Investment Management acquired a new position in Pacific Biosciences of California during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Pacific Biosciences of California during the third quarter worth $29,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its holdings in Pacific Biosciences of California by 891.1% in the third quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 22,776 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 20,478 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp bought a new position in Pacific Biosciences of California in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new stake in Pacific Biosciences of California in the third quarter worth about $38,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on PACB shares. Barclays lifted their target price on Pacific Biosciences of California from $1.00 to $1.50 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (e+)" rating on shares of Pacific Biosciences of California in a report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Pacific Biosciences of California from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and an average target price of $1.83.

Pacific Biosciences of California Company Profile

Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc develops, manufactures and sells high-performance DNA sequencing systems for genetic and genomic analysis. The company's proprietary single-molecule, real-time (SMRT) sequencing technology is designed to enable long-read sequencing, offering high accuracy for applications such as de novo genome assembly, transcriptome characterization and structural variation analysis. Pacific Biosciences markets a suite of instruments, including the Sequel and Sequel IIe systems, alongside reagents, consumables and data analysis software to support a range of life science research.

Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, Pacific Biosciences has expanded its global reach by serving academic institutions, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and government research centers across North America, Europe and Asia.

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