Cancer diagnostics company Pacific Edge [ASX:PEB] released its fourth-quarter shareholder update today, showing test volumes processed in its laboratories in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 have increased 14% on the prior quarter.
This was reported as a new record for the company, with the cancer research and products corporation completing a massive 8,878 tests, up from the 7,768 in the previous total. It’s also a 42% increase in the tests completed at the same time last year.
Shares for PEB have slipped nearly 12% in the past four weeks and 15.5% over the year so far.
Compared to the wider market 12-month rolling average, PEB is down 51%, trading at 38 cents a share at the time of writing:
Source: tradingview.com
Will Pacific Edge’s new testing record incite investor interest?
Cancer analytics group Pacific Edge researches, develops, and commercialises diagnostic and prognostic tools for the early detection and management of cancers in New Zealand, the United States, Australia, and Singapore.
Lately, the group has been assisting clinicians with its Cxbladder Triage test, designed for supporting those afflicted with bladder cancer, and has also integrated the Kaiser Permanente EMR, a proposed LCD from Novitas.
As shown in the graph above, the company’s trajectory has not looked healthy through the past year’s challenges. However, today the biotech was reporting from its headquarters in Dunedin, New Zealand, with some positive news.
The group has released a report on its test volumes for the fourth quarter’s shareholder update, showing test volumes processed in its laboratories in Q4 23 increased to 8,878 tests, a 14% rise on the 7,768 tests in the prior quarter (Q3 2023).
Pacific says this is a new record achieved, which is represented in a 42% increase on the 6,242 tests processed in the same quarter of the prior year (Q4 2022).
Altogether these results show a total volume increase of 37% when comparing year-on-year, with full financial year 2023 reaching 31,566 in total testing, up from the 23,086 tests in the prior financial year, FY2022.
Results for the US
Pacific described the US as the leaders of the results table, which led growth to 7,817 in total for the fourth quarter, an 18% increase on the third quarter’s 6,629 tests.
This is also a 48% increase on the fourth quarter of 2022 and brings total US test volumes to 27,218, a 44% increase from the last financial year.
Asia’s results
The biotech did reveal that the results were not quite as impressive in the Asia region quarter-on-quarter, with Asia Pacific volumes having bumped down 7% on the 1,139 tests processed in Q3 2023. However, it wasn’t all bad news, as they were up year-on-year by 11% on the 952 tests processed in Q4 2022.
Total volumes for this region totalled 4,348, a 3% increase on the 4,222 tests processed in FY 2022. The group said that volume trends in Asia Pacific reflected ‘the maturity of the New Zealand market and the region’s ongoing healthcare reforms.’
It will be interesting to see, given the group continues strong over the next quarter if this activity improves its standing in the share market. Though it may take some more convincing to see the biotech climb the ladder once more.
Time to ‘drill baby drill’
Turning away from the biotech genre for a moment, let’s talk about how commodity stocks are making raging bull market-like gains — regardless of recession fears, interest rates and wider market actions.
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It’s a big universe, and you may need a little help — that’s where our commodities expert, James Cooper, comes in.
He’s found six ASX mining stocks that are heading to top the charts for 2023.
Regards,
Mahlia Stewart,
For Money Morning
