Earnings Sentiment

Sentiment Analysis of the earnings transcript to help figure out if there are any bullish or bearish sentiments that could be gathered from it. We're doing ML and AI based analysis on the earnings call to get some more insights.

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Sentiment Distribution

   

Earnings Call Transcript Word Cloud

     

Bullish Statements during Earnings call

Statement
As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, while instrument orders slowed down in Europe, the robustness of the North American markets, continue to drive the overall momentum, of our spatial biology franchise
We have also strengthened our leadership team
Our Q3 revenue of more than $48 million, was a record high and an increase of more than 60% over the prior year
And so, I think that bodes well for the potential pull-through on our existing installed base and I'm excited about the early resurgence and interest, in acquiring GeoMx instruments that, has resulted from this new capability
With our solid revenue growth and leaner operating model, we believe we are putting the company on track, to become profitable in 2025
We also expect with the reorganization that operating expenses will be sequentially lower in 2024, as compared to 2023, at least $15 million lower than what Street models currently reflect, which should support significantly improved, profitability profile in 2024 and put us on track, for our first full year profitability expected in 2025
Other than to say, we felt really good about the order trend, it was robust and we're pleased, with how things are going
In closing, the spatial biology market is experiencing explosive growth and our innovative technologies and compelling road map goes at the forefront of this exciting field
He has some great ideas on how to continue to improve our performance and I have the utmost confidence that Todd will drive the effectiveness of our commercial organization and our future growth
With these improvements, we hope investors will take a fresh look at NanoString, as we refocus attention on the strong fundamentals of our business
In general, though, I mean, I think we feel really good about the long-term fundamentals of our marketplace
And I think that kind of leadership in a market of very strong secular growth is the primary thing that customers should be looking at to gain confidence on our outlook
Demand is especially strong from new to NanoString customers, who accounted for more than 90% of CosMx's orders during the third quarter
While ongoing litigation slowed the pace of orders in Europe, strong demand in North America drove overall CosMx's momentum
We feel that we're very fortunate, to be in the forefront of this ongoing spatial biology revolution
In addition to that, the transaction we just did with the noteholders offers us the opportunity to pick interest next year, which gives us a really great support from the noteholders next year, as we make some additional changes to the business to get ourselves on that path to profitability
We are continuing to enhance our AtoMx platforms, features, functionality and usability by listening to customers and implementing a series of software upgrades and we are excited about AtoMx's continued evolution
So all of those factors combined together on top, of what Brad mentioned is what we feel is a really robust long-term opportunity for our spatial franchises and the stability of nCounter, we think put us in a really good position, to get where we need to be on our existing cash resources
We've also seen improvement in nCounter instrument sales throughout the year and we're implementing initiatives, to keep this foundational business a steady contributor
In Q3, we exceeded the upper end of our revenue guidance, by about $1 million as we successfully scaled up instrument manufacturing and continue, to work through our substantial CosMx backlog
Heading into 2024, we expect gross margins to improve driven by increasing consumable sales, as a percentage of our total revenue and improved instrument production costs
And so, we expect to see that - we expect that to drive spatial consumable growth, which has the benefit of also expanding our gross margins, in the way that Tom alluded, to in his prepared remarks
So far this year, we have beat our revenue guidance in every corner
Customer feedback on these presentations was extremely positive with many customers and all of the enormous increase in protein plex that we delivered, calling it a game changer
So I think those are the three big catalysts, the CosMx 6000, the GeoMx IPA and the activation and consumer utilization of our rapidly growing spatial biology installed base
And our customers have been very supportive of the company
The past several months have been incredibly productive for NanoString
Of course, on top of that, we have a very exciting series of product launches and a road map to support them that we should keep customers interested in our technology at the forefront
Despite what we believe are our competitors' efforts to misuse preliminary court rulings to create anxiety for customers and eliminate competition, we have successfully defended our sizable CosMx instrument order book to filling or retaining approximately 95% of cumulative orders
And then, Brad, it's good to hear a strong early feedback for your immuno-oncology Proteome Atlas for the GeoMx
       

Bearish Statements during earnings call

Statement
And we've experienced a handful of order cancellations from customers, who had not yet received their CosMx instrument, for RNA and of course, now could not do so
Q3 adjusted gross margin was 41%, impacted by revenue mix heavily weighted to spatial instruments, which are currently selling at lower than planned gross margins due primarily to higher unit production costs incurred than expected
I'd say the cautionary notes, include things such as possibility of a government shutdown, and sort of caution that could emerge in this markets, for academic researchers, as well as just more cautious outlooks for biopharma companies
Yes, within the European countries, of course, are being enjoined from selling our CosMx instrument for RNA assays, has slowed down the pace of new orders, coming out of Europe for CosMx
So if you really - if you're starting to draw that down, I think they were going to start to get a little concern as to maybe how the outlook is into next year
I'd say you highlighted the two primary reasons that we took a more cautious, that we narrowed the end of our guidance range towards the more cautious end of our previous full year range
The impact of this expense reduction, is not yet reflected in Street models, which we believe overestimate our operating loss in the coming years
Given the lower expected gross margin range and the partially offsetting reduction in Q4 operating expenses, we now expect full year 2023 adjusted EBITDA loss of approximately $80 million to $85 million
Q3 adjusted EBITDA loss was $20.2 million
I mean the first fact that's changed is of course, that we are now enjoying from selling our number one selling products into 17 European countries, which slows down the revenue recognition of CosMx overall
It's a little bit less than we had originally expected and I wouldn't say that's necessarily, due to any sort of overall broad pricing pressure, that's just how the shipments that shook out during the quarter
We think it would be a tragedy for European science, if they were constrained to work on the less flexible offerings of our competitors
And we're hearing a number of our peer companies express, some caution as we head into the fourth quarter
So it's - while it's obviously a headwind, it's not one that should overall change, the overall shape of the market
And the investors may not appreciate the importance of proteomic applications in driving GeoMx utilization
But it's a bad thing in terms, of the customer experience, because it provides long delays between when people want, to get their hands on a piece of technology, to get their science and when they - and when they actually can
It is a little bit lower than, what was originally planned
And that's consistent with my prepared remarks, where I characterize scientists as having a huge foam, or fear of missing out
A failure to properly segment cells in a tissue, calls this molecule to be assigned to the wrong cells, making the data generated useless, or even worse misleading
And then second, we have begun to see some elongation in the sales cycles, of our higher-priced equipment
   

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