Intrexon (XON) Q1 Loss Narrower Than Expected, Revenues Miss

Intrexon Corporation (NYSE:XON) reported adjusted loss of 17 cents per share (excluding one time and special items) in the first quarter of 2018, narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 24 cents. Loss was also narrower than the year ago loss of 26 cents.

Total revenues came in at $43.8 million, down 18.4% year over year. Reported revenues missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $55 million.

Over a year, the stock has gained 61.8%, as against the industry’s decline of 0.8%.

Quarter in Detail

Intrexon’s sales primarily consist of collaboration and licensing revenues as well as product and service revenues.

Intrexon follows a business model under which it commercializes its technologies through exclusive channel collaborations (ECC), licensing agreements and joint ventures that have market and product development expertise as well as sales and marketing capabilities to bring new and improved products and processes to the market. Such agreements provide the company with funds in the form of technology access fees along with milestones and other payments.

Collaboration and licensing revenues decreased 27.3% to $24.1 million year over year. This was due to lowerresearch and development services for some of the company's ECCs.

While product revenues came in at $7.2 million, up 12% from the year-ago period, service revenues amounted to $12.2 million, up 1.8% year over year.

Meanwhile, the company is developing several candidates in partnership with other companies.

Intrexon structured its principal healthcare assets into two separate wholly-owned subsidiaries — Precigen, Inc., a gene and cell therapycompany developing precision medicines, and ActoBio Therapeutics, Inc., a company focused, via its proprietary ActoBiotics platform, on therapeutic delivery of biologics to the site of disease. Effective Jan 1, 2018, Precigen and ActoBio Therapeutics began operating as standalone entities and are now wholly-owned subsidiaries of Intrexon.

ActoBio Therapeutics and collaborator Intrexon T1D Partners, LLC, were granted allowance by the FDA for their investigational new drug (“IND”) application to initiate a Phase Ib/IIa study for the treatment of early onset type I diabetes with AG019, an innovative disease-modifying approach to induce immune tolerance.

The company’s collaborator Fibrocell Science, Inc. obtained allowance from the FDA to begin clinical studies for FCX-013, its gene therapy candidate for the treatment of moderate to severe localized scleroderma.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Intrexon carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A few better-ranked stocks from the same space worth considering are Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) , Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENTA) and Catabasis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CATB) . While Ligand sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Enanta and Catabasis carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Ligand’s earnings per share estimates have moved up from $4.20 to $4.43 for 2018 over the past 60 days. The company delivered a positive earnings surprise in all of the trailing four quarters, with an average beat of 31.79%. The company’s shares have rallied 25.4% year to date.

Enanta’searnings per share estimates have moved up from 86 cents to $2.48 for 2018 over the past 30 days. The company delivered a positive earnings surprise in three of the trailing four quarters, with an average beat of 372.02%. The stock has rallied 68.2% so far this year.

Catabasis’ loss estimates narrowed from $1.09 to 90 cents for 2018 and from $1.76 to $1.43 for 2019, in the past 60 days. The company came up with a positive earnings surprise in all the preceding four quarters, with an average beat of 14.56%. The stock has rallied 9.4% so far this year.

Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside?

Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana.

Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look.

See the pot trades we're targeting>>