Seer Q3 Earnings Call Highlights

Key Points

• Seer cut its 2026 revenue forecast to $13.5 million–$14.5 million from $16 million–$18 million, citing research funding constraints, customer uncertainty and delayed purchases.
• Third-quarter revenue rose to $4 million from $3.1 million in Q2, while the net loss narrowed to $13.7 million from $18.2 million a year earlier as operating expenses fell. Seer ended the quarter with about $198 million in cash, equivalents and investments.
• Seer is focusing sales on funded research programs that can drive recurring consumables purchases; management expects 2027 growth but gave no guidance. It said existing capital should support its current plan to reach cash flow breakeven.

Seer NASDAQ: SEER lowered its 2026 revenue outlook after research funding constraints and uncertainty surrounding its future delayed customer purchases, even as third-quarter revenue rose from the preceding quarter.

The proteomics technology company now expects full-year revenue of $13.5 million to $14.5 million, down from its prior forecast of $16 million to $18 million. Revenue for the quarter ended September 30 was $4 million, up from $3.1 million in the second quarter.

CEO and Board Chair Omid Farokhzad said academic and government funding constraints have lengthened purchasing timelines. Treasurer and Principal Financial Officer Charles Endweiss added that an activist campaign and subsequent acquisition proposals prompted some customers to seek assurances before committing to purchases.

Seer announced on October 29 that a special committee had completed its review and that the company would remain an independent public company. Endweiss said several late-stage opportunities are now expected to close later than planned.

Quarterly Loss Narrows as Expenses Fall

Third-quarter product revenue was $2.8 million, driven by sales of Proteograph instruments and consumable kits. Service revenue was $1.1 million, while related-party revenue was $0.1 million. Endweiss attributed the sequential increase in total revenue to higher instrument shipments and new customer agreements.

Gross profit was approximately $1.9 million, with a gross margin of 47%, down 130 basis points from the second quarter. Endweiss said margins will continue to vary with the mix of instrument, consumable and service revenue. At scale, the company continues to target long-term gross margins of 70% to 75%.

Operating expenses declined to $16.5 million from $21.5 million a year earlier, as research and development expenses fell to $6.4 million from $10.8 million. Net loss narrowed to $13.7 million from $18.2 million.

Seer ended the quarter with approximately $198 million in cash, equivalents and investments. For the first nine months of 2026, it used approximately $34.5 million in cash in operating activities and reported approximately $34.8 million in negative free cash flow.

Farokhzad said the company believes its existing capital is sufficient to reach cash flow breakeven under its current operating plan, which assumes revenue growth, improving gross margins and spending discipline.

Sales Strategy Targets Repeat Use

Seer is concentrating its commercial efforts on funded research programs that can generate recurring consumable purchases, including opportunities with biopharmaceutical companies and population-scale studies. Farokhzad said the company has signed several new large pharmaceutical customers this year that purchased instruments and consumables.

Endweiss said consumable pull-through was relatively flat sequentially. Established customers continued to purchase consumables, including some that bought them in multiple consecutive quarters, though orders remain tied to individual research projects.

During the question-and-answer session, Farokhzad said the sales cycle remains long but has shortened to about six months from a high single-digit number of months as fewer customers require proof-of-concept studies. He also said the company was discussing projects involving more than 10,000 samples and expected to announce one such customer in the coming weeks, with an initial order involving a couple of thousand samples.

Farokhzad said he expects 2027 to be a year of growth but did not provide guidance. He also said Seer expects to pass some cost savings on to customers through lower prices.

Research and Intellectual Property Updates

Farokhzad highlighted preliminary results from Singapore's PRECISE-SG100K population health study, in which researchers used Proteograph alongside Thermo Fisher Scientific's Orbitrap Astral mass spectrometry technology. Across 9,658 plasma samples, the workflow quantified approximately 8,800 protein groups across the study, he said.

He also cited an independent study published in Clinical Proteomics that compared seven plasma preparation approaches. Proteograph XT, used with an Orbitrap Exploris 480 mass spectrometer, identified an average of approximately 6,060 proteins per sample and had a 1.9% rate of missing protein measurements, he said.

Seer is also pursuing AI-driven research customers. Farokhzad pointed to preliminary work by Korea University researchers using Proteograph-enabled measurements and an AI approach that uses identified and unidentified spectral signals. The preliminary results showed improved overall cancer classification performance compared with models using only identified peptide features, he said.

On intellectual property, Farokhzad said staff at the International Trade Commission recommended granting the exclusion and cease-and-desist orders sought in an action Seer and Brigham and Women's Hospital brought against Nanomics. He said Nanomics stopped defending the investigation and that the commission's final determination remains pending, with a decision expected by year-end.

Through September 30, Seer had repurchased approximately 13.5 million shares for about $25 million under board authorizations totaling $50 million. Approximately $25 million remained available for repurchases.

About Seer (NASDAQ:SEER)

Seer, Inc. is a life sciences company that develops technologies for large-scale protein analysis, known as proteomics. The company's platform is designed to help researchers study a broad range of proteins in biological samples and generate detailed information that may support drug discovery, disease research and biomarker development. Seer's primary offering is the Proteograph Product Suite, which combines engineered nanoparticle technology, laboratory consumables, automation and software. The system is intended to provide deep, unbiased proteomic analysis from relatively small biological samples, including blood and other complex specimens.

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