Seer NASDAQ: SEER reported lower first-quarter revenue but reaffirmed its full-year 2026 outlook, with management pointing to population-scale proteomics studies, an expanding publication base and expected second-half consumables demand as supports for the year.
Total revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, was $2.8 million, down from $4.2 million in the first quarter of 2025. Chief Executive Officer and Chair Omid Farokhzad said the quarter reflected “the ongoing depressed academic funding environment” that has pressured customer budgets, as well as increased competitive activity from what he described as “inferior product imitators.”
Despite the softer quarter, Seer reaffirmed full-year 2026 revenue guidance of $16 million to $18 million, which Chief Financial Officer and President David Horn said represents about 3% growth at the midpoint compared with full-year 2025.
Revenue Declines as Company Cites Funding Headwinds
Horn said product revenue was $2.1 million in the first quarter, consisting of Proteograph instruments and consumable kits. Service revenue was $0.6 million, including $0.1 million of related-party revenue, and primarily reflected projects run through Seer’s Technology Access Center, or STAC. Other revenue was $0.1 million from lease and shipping revenue.
Gross profit was about $1 million, representing a gross margin of 35%, compared with 49% a year earlier. Horn said the decline was driven by lower absorption of fixed period costs as revenue volumes fell. He added that gross margin is expected to vary from quarter to quarter depending on the mix of instrument, consumable and service revenue, while reiterating Seer’s long-term gross margin target of 70% to 75% at scale.
Operating expenses declined to $18.2 million from $22.8 million in the prior-year period. Research and development expenses fell to $8.8 million from $11.4 million, while selling, general and administrative expenses declined to $9.4 million from $11.4 million. Horn said the reductions were primarily due to lower employee compensation expense, including stock-based compensation, though the company incurred additional legal and professional services expenses in the quarter and expects those to continue into the second quarter.
Seer posted a net loss of $16.8 million, compared with a net loss of $19.9 million in the first quarter of 2025. Free cash flow was negative $15.7 million. The company ended the quarter with approximately $219.5 million in cash equivalents and investments, which Horn said Seer believes is sufficient to reach cash flow breakeven.
Guidance Reaffirmed Despite Softer First Quarter
Horn said Seer’s confidence in its 2026 outlook is supported by conversations with academic, biobank and biopharma customers, as well as expected consumable pull-through from instruments placed in 2025. He noted that customers typically place a stocking order at the time of an instrument purchase and may reorder after nine to 12 months.
“We do feel like it will be kind of more second half than first half,” Horn said during the question-and-answer session, while adding that the company remains confident in its ability to hit the guidance range.
Horn said service revenue was lower in the quarter because STAC revenue can be “especially prone to some bigger projects,” and the first quarter did not include a large project. He said the company was not concerned about interest in STAC, describing the issue as timing-related and dependent on when customers provide samples.
Biobank Studies and Publications Remain Key Focus
Farokhzad said Seer continues to build scientific validation for its Proteograph Product Suite, with 84 peer-reviewed publications, preprints and reviews now referencing the platform. That compares with 42 as of March 2025 and three at the time of Seer’s broad commercial launch in 2022.
He highlighted the PRECISE-SG100K population-scale study in Singapore, announced in collaboration with Precision Health Research, Singapore and Thermo Fisher Scientific. Farokhzad said the PRECISE team is generating deep, unbiased proteomics data for 10,000 participants and that Seer believes the study may eventually encompass 100,000 participants.
The company also pointed to existing population-scale studies with Korea University and Discovery Life Sciences, as well as an NIH-funded multi-omic study. Farokhzad said Professor Lee from Korea University is expected to present initial data from a subset of a 20,000-patient cohort at the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Conference in June, and that the PRECISE team is expected to share data publicly at the HUPO World Congress in September.
Farokhzad also cited recent results from PrognomiQ, which uses the Proteograph for proteomic biomarker discovery. According to Farokhzad, PrognomiQ announced results from the first cohort of 78 high-risk adults in an ongoing real-world study of its ProVue Lung blood test, including detection of eight lung cancers.
Seer Addresses Competition and Intellectual Property
Management devoted part of the call to competition and intellectual property protection. Farokhzad said the emergence of competing products validates the market Seer has built, but argued that some products are copycats with inferior performance and lower pricing.
In March, Farokhzad said, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board upheld 23 of 29 claims in one of Seer’s nanoparticle protein enrichment patents. He said Seer has more than 250 patents and patent applications, including 84 issued patents.
Farokhzad also said Seer filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Nanomics Biotechnology, with Brigham and Women’s Hospital joining the suit. He said Seer intends to “vigorously protect” its intellectual property and argued that the integrity of proteomics research could be undermined if researchers use inferior sample preparation products.
Commercial Leadership and Product Innovation
Seer appointed Anthony Bazarko as chief commercial officer during the quarter. Farokhzad said Bazarko brings two decades of commercial leadership experience across life sciences, diagnostics and biotechnology, including roles at Biologos and Specific Diagnostics.
The company also modified its Seer Insight Grants program into two tracks: a translational research track and a biopharma development track. Farokhzad said the new biopharma track is intended to engage pharmaceutical and biotech teams in areas such as mechanism-of-action studies, resistance biology and biomarker strategy.
On the product side, Farokhzad said Seer is continuing to invest in its next-generation detector, which is intended to expand deep, unbiased proteomics beyond current mass spectrometry users and into the broader multi-omics research community. He said the company anticipates a data showcase later this year.
Seer also continues to develop its Proteograph Analysis Suite and recently posted a bioRxiv preprint on Radiant DIA, which Farokhzad described as a faster, more scalable search engine for quantitative proteomics. The company expects to discuss Radiant DIA at the upcoming ASMS Conference.
In the first quarter, Seer repurchased about 1.5 million Class A common shares at an average price of $1.78 per share. Horn said the company has repurchased approximately 13.2 million shares at a volume-weighted average price of $1.86, using about $24.5 million of a $25 million repurchase authorization from May 2024. The board authorized a new repurchase program of up to $25 million in February 2026.
About Seer NASDAQ: SEER
Seer, Inc is a life sciences company focused on pioneering next-generation proteomics, the large-scale study of proteins and their functions in complex biological systems. By leveraging proprietary nanoparticle-based technology, Seer's platform enables high-throughput, unbiased protein analysis from biological samples, addressing a critical bottleneck in drug discovery, biomarker research and precision medicine.
The company's flagship Proteograph Product Suite combines engineered nanoparticle assays with advanced mass spectrometry and bioinformatics pipelines to deliver deep proteomic coverage in a scalable workflow.
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