Fluidigm (FLDM) Reports Prelim. 1Q Revenues Below Consensus; Withdraws FY20 Guidance

Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ: FLDM) today provided an update on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its business and announced preliminary revenue estimates for the quarter ended March 31, 2020.

Fluidigm has been actively responding to the pandemic by protecting our employees and serving urgent customer needs while managing our liquidity.

Protecting our EmployeesAs Fluidigm is a designated essential business, our employees have been working from home offices or our laboratories and offices, and in some cases, at customer sites. We have implemented health and safety practices in accordance with evolving government and public health agency guidelines in all of our facilities around the world.

Serving our CustomersFluidigm has been working with a growing body of researchers around the world who are aggressively responding to the pandemic. We believe our microfluidics and mass cytometry capabilities can play a significant role in virus detection as well as immune profiling of the impacted population. Furthermore, we believe our solutions will be important to the durable response from government and medical institutions.

Examples of recent activity include:

• A global mix of customers utilizing or evaluating our microfluidic platforms for ultrahigh-throughput RNA-based virus detection tests.
• Clinical researchers deploying Fluidigm CyTOF® technology and/or our Maxpar® Direct™ Immune Profiling Assay™ to characterize the immune response to the virus or evaluate immune response related to potential therapies and vaccine candidates. A recent example was the publication of a clinical study1 to evaluate stem cell therapy as a potential treatment for COVID-19 pneumonia in China.
• Novel approaches to COVID-19 related opportunities, including a recent announcement that a consortium of medical schools funded by the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a new epigenetic test employing our unique microfluidics technology for early COVID-19 detection.

Managing our LiquidityWe are actively managing our operating expenses and cash flows in response to the evolving market conditions.

Additional details regarding Fluidigm’s activities related to the COVID-19 pandemic can be found at fluidigm.com and investors.fluidigm.com

First Quarter Preliminary Financial HighlightsTotal revenue is expected to be approximately $27.6 million, including approximately $3 million of license revenue. We observed a significant slowdown in customer activity beginning in China, spreading to all regions of the world as the quarter progressed. Widespread adoption of work-from-home or shelter-in-place policies caused many of our customers to reduce or suspend their activities, which adversely affected our revenue in the first quarter. The first quarter was not impacted by supply or manufacturing constraints.

Cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments, and restricted cash as of March 31, 2020, totaled approximately $49.6 million, compared to $60.7 million at the end of 2019. Cash flows in the quarter included $5.2 million of cash consideration paid for the acquisition of InstruNor AS and $3.5 million of cash received pursuant to a licensing and legal settlement.

2020 GuidanceDue to the unknown duration and extent of the novel coronavirus’s impact on revenue and the uncertainty about how this pandemic will affect our global operations, Fluidigm is withdrawing its 2020 guidance that was provided on February 10, 2020. We expect to update our outlook at such time as the effects of the virus on our business become clearer.

We plan on releasing our full financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2020 and additional information on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in our upcoming earnings call, which is expected to be in early May 2020.

You May Also Be Interested In

• Walmart (WMT) PT Lowered to $130 at UBS on Investment Narrative's Competing Dynamics
• Real and RE/MAX Holdings receive court approval for merger
• BJ's Wholesale Club (BJ) Tops Q2 EPS by 19c, Beats on Revenue; Offers FY27 EPS Guidance