Since going public just over three years ago, Quanterix Corp. (QTRX, Financial) shares have quadrupled to about $63. Recently, the Billerica, Massachusetts-based diagnostics company closed another public offering, this one for 4.1 million shares at $70 a share.
The stock has been in a bit of a funk lately, though. Less than a month ago, it was trading at about $91. The current price seems to be more reasonable to Wall Street. Market Beat reported analysts at SVB Leerink recently raised its price target from $75 to $85. Concord Genuity bumped up its price target on Quanterix from $86 to $90 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report this week. Zacks Investment Research was less enthusiastic, cutting Quanterix from a "hold" to a "sell" rating in a Jan. 30 report.
Quanterix develops and markets digital immunoassay platforms that advance precision health for life sciences research and diagnostics in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific. Its technology is designed to enable much earlier disease detection, better prognoses and enhanced treatment methods to improve the quality of life. It is currently being used in a majority of therapeutic areas, including oncology, neurology, cardiology, inflammation and infectious disease.
Last month, Quanterix received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its Simoa SARS-CoV-2 N Protein Antigen Test. The company recently announced it had agreed to open a joint Simoa laboratory with WuXi AppTec (SHSE:603259, Financial) to improve access to Quanterix's industry-leading biomarker testing and development offerings across China and the Asia Pacific market.
Quanterix is led by Kevin Hrusovsky, a renowned expert in the field of biotechnology. Before joining Quanterix as President and CEO, he was president of life sciences and technologies at PerkinElmer Inc. (PKI, Financial) and CEO of Caliper Life Sciences and Zymark Corp., both of which are now part of PerkinElmer.
The company's fourth-quarter revenue was $26.1 million, up 64% from the previous year and topped Wall Street estimates. The company's fourth-quarter net loss was down to $9.8 million from $11 million a year ago. For full-year 2020, Quanterix's revenue rose 52% to $86.4 million from $56.7 million in 2019 and beat the Wall Street consensus of $84.4 million. The company ended the year with $181.6 million in cash and cash equivalents.
Disclosure: The author has no positions in any of the companies mentioned in this article.
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