Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA) stock is up more than 12% today after a strong second-quarter earnings call this morning. The DNA sequencing company clearly managed to impress investors with its strong revenue growth and impressive project development.
This morning Ginkgo offered its financial results for its fiscal Q2, which ended June 30. The biotech reported $144.6 million in total revenue, handily beating Wall Street consensus estimates of just $77.6 million. This represents a 231% increase in revenue compared to the same quarter last year, largely due to additional biosecurity service sales. Indeed, biosecurity product revenues jumped up to 3.9 million in 2q22, from $355,000 last year.
The company also raised its year-end guidance, now expecting total revenue between $425 and $440 million, a far cry from its previous outlook of between $375 million and $390 million in expected revenue.
It wasn’t a perfectly harmonious earnings call, however. The company reported an earnings per share loss (EPS) of 41 cents, a wider loss than the negative four-cent EPS reported in 2021, which was coincidentally the Wall Street expected EPS.
Ginkgo Chief Executive Jason Kelly commented on the company’s growth over the past year:
We delivered a strong quarter across both our cell programming and biosecurity businesses. We added 13 new Cell Programs and more than doubled our second-quarter Foundry revenue year-over-year. We executed well on our biosecurity business through the remainder of the school year and are seeing traction across this business with longer-term, diversified biosecurity opportunities, including being awarded a new contract from the CDC to continue our pathogen monitoring work in airports.
DNA Stock Soars on Strong Revenue Growth, New Covid-19 Surveillance Program
Ginkgo’s earnings beat is likely behind much of its gains today. But that’s not the only news boosting the genetic engineering company lately. On Monday, Aug. 15, Ginkgo announced it was awarded a new contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to assist its traveler-based SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance program. The new contract was awarded on Aug. 12 and is a continuation and expansion of an existing partnership. The program is expected to enhance public health and biosecurity. The deal stipulates roughly $16 million in necessary funding for the programs, with the potential for more than $61 million depending on evolving conditions.
The CDC has long been partnered with Ginkgo, via Concentric, the public health sector of the company. They’ve worked to deliver timely Covid-19 surveillance, testing, and tracing, especially in hotspots like airports. The renewed partnership guarantees another year of surveillance, a hopeful sign for public safety given the growing prevalence of the omicron BA.2 and BA.3 variants.
On the date of publication, Shrey Dua did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
