Here's Why You Should Hold On To Pacific Biosciences Stock

Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (NASDAQ:PACB) continues to benefit from innovative product portfolio, the company’s platform — Sequel system, and promising Asian markets. However, intense competition remains a woe.

Shares of Pacific Biosciences have lost 31.6% in a year’s time, against the industry’s growth of 10.1%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Index rallied 15.4% in the same time period.

The company, with a market capitalization of $791.2 million, develops, manufactures and markets sequencing systems, which help in studying synthesis, composition, structure and regulation of deoxyribonucleic acid, popularly known as DNA.

Let’s delve deeper and analyze the factors that substantiate why it is alright to hold on to the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock for now.

What’s Deterring the Stock?

The DNA sequencing market is highly competitive thanks to the presence of established players like Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) . Low-cost sequencing products from Illumina continue to gain traction, which remains a headwind.

What’s Favoring the Stock?

Pacific Biosciences continues to benefit from innovative product portfolio that has been boosting its performance for quite some time now. Moreover, new developments in products instill optimism in the stock.

With respect to such developments, the company has obtained average sequencing read links approaching 100 kilobases sequencing yield for SMRT cell exceeding 40 gigabases. These developments open up new avenues for SMRT Sequencing and are likely to expand the company’s product spectrum.

Pacific Biosciences’ flagship platform — the Sequel system — has been strengthening its presence global. Sequel system is a nucleic acid sequencing platform based on SMRT technology. The Sequel System has been a significant contributor to the company’s top line.

In the recent past, the company unveiled the upgraded Sequel System and new multiplexing tools at the American Society for Microbiology to make the process of obtaining microbial genomes accurate, faster and more affordable. We expect the Sequel system’s higher throughput, scalability, lower upfront capital investment, and smaller size and weight to attract cost-sensitive customers.

Pacific Biosciences continues to see solid demand for SMRT sequencing in Asia. The company also witnesses significant strength in its China business. Moreover, Novogene has become Pacific Biosciences’ largest customer worldwide. The facility is located in Nanjing China and houses 20 sequel systems.

Which Way Are Estimates Headed?

For 2019, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $88.5 million, indicating an improvement of 12.5% from the year-ago period. The same for earnings stands at a loss of 71 cents per share.

A Stock to Consider

A better-ranked stock from the broader medical space is Conmed Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD) , currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Conmed has a long-term earnings growth rate of 17%.

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