Cytek Biosciences (CTKB) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Executive Summary

Q3 revenue grew 2% YoY to $52.3M and rose 15% QoQ, modestly above consensus, but GAAP EPS of $(0.04) missed a small positive consensus; gross margin improved sequentially to 53% but remained below last year due to materials/tariff headwinds and higher service delivery costs. Consensus: Revenue $51.1M*, EPS $0.01* (2 rev ests, 4 EPS ests)*. Values retrieved from S&P Global.
Mix was favorable in APAC (+25% YoY), U.S. total revenue +12% YoY on strong service, while EMEA declined 28% on weaker academic/government spending; recurring revenues (service + reagents) accelerated (+19% YoY) and reagent revenue hit a record (+21% YoY).
Operating leverage was pressured by a 47% YoY increase in G&A (patent litigation and a $0.7M non‑recurring ATM write‑off), driving a larger operating loss (‑$9.2M vs ‑$4.2M a year ago) and net loss of ‑$5.5M (vs +$0.9M a year ago) despite positive adjusted EBITDA of $2.5M.
FY25 revenue guidance reaffirmed at $196–$205M (‑2% to +2% YoY), with management citing typical Q4 biopharma seasonality/budget flush, continued APAC strength, U.S. stabilization, and sustained momentum in recurring revenue.
Potential stock reaction catalysts: sustained service/reagent growth, APAC momentum and Aurora Evo uptake versus concerns around EMEA weakness, litigation‑driven opex, and margin pressure from tariffs/materials.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well
- Recurring revenue engines accelerating: service +19% YoY and reagents +21% YoY; reagent revenue achieved highest‑ever quarter, supported by faster delivery times and better customer service, and service growth came from the expanding installed base/utilization. “Reagent revenue grew 21% globally year‑over‑year… Service continued to deliver strong revenue growth, with 19% growth in Q3”.
- APAC strength and U.S. stabilization: APAC increased 25% YoY across instruments, service, and reagents; U.S. total revenue +12% YoY with instruments flat vs a tough comp, notably +10% instrument growth to biopharma.
- Product/innovation traction: Installed base expanded by 161 units to 3,456; Aurora cell sorter +35% YoY; Aurora Evo launched late Q2 with strong reception; Muse Micro early traction; Cytek Cloud users >22,600 (+40% YTD) with AI‑powered Panel Builder.
What Went Wrong
- EMEA weakness deepened: total EMEA revenue down 28% YoY, notably from academic/government customers amid public spending shifts; also single‑digit declines in pharma/biotech/CRO accounts.
- Margin pressure: GAAP gross margin 53% (down from 56% YoY), driven by lower service margin (headcount/travel), higher materials and tariff costs, and higher overhead; although sequential improvement (52% → 53%) occurred on higher product GM/absorption.
- OpEx elevated and litigation costs: G&A +47% YoY on patent litigation and a $0.7M non‑recurring ATM cost write‑off, widening operating loss (‑$9.2M vs ‑$4.2M YoY) and driving a swing to net loss despite positive adjusted EBITDA.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day, everyone, and thank you for standing by. My name is Arjarie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Cytek Biosciences Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Paul Goodson, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Paul Goodson (Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Operator. Earlier today, Cytek Biosciences released financial results for the third quarter ended September 30th, 2025. If you haven't received this news release, or if you'd like to be added to the company's distribution list, please send an email to [email protected]. A copy of this news release is also available on the Investor Relations section of Cytek's website at investors.cytekbio.com. Joining me today from Cytek are Wenbin Jiang, CEO, and Bill McCombe, CFO. Please note that we will be referencing a slide presentation during the call today that has been posted to the Investors section of our corporate website. As a reminder, we will make statements during this call that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding Cytek's business plans, strategies, opportunities, and financial projections.

These statements are based on the company's current expectations and inherently involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those anticipated in these statements. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties appears in our slide presentation in the section entitled Forward-Looking Statements in the press release Cytek issued today and in Cytek's filings with the SEC. This call will also include a discussion of certain financial measures that are not calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Additional information regarding our use of non-GAAP financial measures, including reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, may be found in our slide presentation and in today's press release.

While the company believes these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information for investors, the presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Except as required by law, Cytek disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or changes in its expectations. This conference call contains time-sensitive information and is accurate only as of the live broadcast on November 5th, 2025. I want to thank those of you who attended our User Group Meeting on October 22nd in New York City. Our next and last User Group Meeting for 2025 will be just two days from now on November 7th in Montreal.

Cytek also participates in a variety of industry conferences worldwide, often hosting a booth where attendees can see our products and learn about them from our knowledgeable team members. As always, these events are primarily geared to the scientific community, but they may offer an opportunity to investors and analysts to interact with our users of technologies and to learn why Cytek's instruments are so highly valued by our customers. We have a limited number of spaces to accommodate members of the financial community, so if you are interested in attending any of these events, please contact me in January when we will have a list of 2026 events. With that, I will turn the call over to Wenbin.

Wenbin Jiang (CEO)

Thanks, Paul. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for your interest in Cytek. On today's call, I would like to start with a discussion of our performance in the third quarter. Next, I will give you some highlights of our progress during the third quarter on our strategic priorities before turning the call over to Bill for a more detailed look at our financials and our outlook. Turning to slide three. In the third quarter of 2025, total revenue reached $52.3 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 2% compared to the same period in 2024. This growth was primarily driven by strong double-digit gains in the Asia-Pacific region and the continued momentum in our recurring revenue businesses, specifically service and reagents. Turning to slide four. Geographically, APAC, including China, led our performance with robust revenue growth across all categories, including instruments, reagents, and service.

In the U.S., we saw double-digit positive year-over-year overall revenue growth driven by continued momentum in service revenue. In contrast, EMEA experienced a double-digit year-over-year revenue decline, largely due to significantly reduced instrument sales to academic and government customers and a modest decline in instrument sales to pharma, biotech, and CRO customers. In our Rest of World regions, which includes Canada and Latin America, we achieved double-digit overall revenue growth compared to the third quarter of last year. Turning to slide five. Notably, I wanted to call out that excluding the performance in EMEA, Cytek posted double-digit revenue growth in all worldwide regions in the third quarter, as you can see from this slide. Focusing now on instruments. Our instrument revenue to pharma and biotech customers grew 12% worldwide, including 10% in the U.S., driven in part by the launch of our Aurora Evo instrument.

Instrument revenue in APAC, including China, grew 20% year-over-year and grew 32% year-over-year in the rest of the world. This strong momentum is being driven by a positive funding environment for academic institutions in these regions. In the U.S., overall instrument revenue was flat compared to a year ago. U.S. instrument revenue was driven by improving demand from pharma, biotech, and CRO customers, which we believe stems from greater clarity around the macroeconomic and industry factors. However, these instrument revenue gains were offset by continued softness in the academic and government sectors, where funding uncertainty persisted due to the evolving U.S. policy landscape. In the quarter, we did begin to see some stabilization in this end market. However, academic and government demand remained under pressure, resulting in no net overall instrument revenue growth in the U.S. in the third quarter.

In EMEA, instrument revenue declined, particularly in the academic and government sectors, which we believe reflects a broader shift in public spending priorities. Looking at our recurring revenue sources, service revenue continued to grow strongly, contributing meaningfully to our overall base of recurring revenue. APAC was particularly strong broadly, including in service and reagents. Service revenue growth was driven by our expanding installed instrument base and strong utilization of our products. Reagent revenue grew 21% globally year-over-year, supported by operational improvements, including faster delivery times and enhanced customer service. I would now like to update you on the progress our team has made across our core strategic pillars: instruments, applications, bioinformatics, and clinical, to further solidify Cytek's position as a market leader in next-gen cell analysis solutions. Starting with our core instruments on slide six.

In the third quarter, we expanded our global footprint by 161 instruments, bringing Cytek's total installed base to 3,456 units. Within our instrument portfolio, our Aurora cell sorter was the strongest contributor in Q3, growing 35% year-over-year. We believe this strong growth is notable during a time when competing instruments have been recently introduced to the market. Late in the second quarter, we introduced the Aurora Evo analyzer, and I'm pleased to report that it has had a strong reception. The Aurora Evo system is a demonstration of Cytek's commitment to maintain its position as the forefront of technology development in the flow cytometry industry. It offers a unique combination of high throughput, industry-leading data quality, small particle detection, ease of use, and automation and harmonization features. We expect it will be the standard against which other systems are measured.

We included these new features after listening to what our customers wanted, and by the strong reception during Q3, it's clear that they are deriving value from the new features we added to create the Aurora Evo. Finally, regarding instruments, I want to mention that our Muse Micro Analyzer has gotten a very strong reception since it was first introduced this past March. The Muse Micro offers advanced microcapillary fluids, enhanced optics, better software, and broader assay compatibility, all while maintaining affordability and a compact design. It's an ideal choice for researchers and the lab seeking cost-effective flow cytometry systems. Turning to our next growth pillar, applications, which includes reagents. We remain focused on driving our reagent product engine growth, and as part of this commitment, we recently announced the expansion of our European headquarters at our facility in Amsterdam's Life Science District.

This site increases our footprint in EMEA by more than 40%, including a dedicated customer service and training center. To further advance our reagent business, we additionally transitioned the reagent warehouse operations to this site to improve operational agility and efficiency, reduce turnaround time, and provide reliable and consistent experiences for our customers. Over time, we expect our recurring revenue base to continue growing. Moving to bioinformatics. As we have mentioned before, our Cytek Cloud continues to provide important benefits to our users. Our software tools empower customers to streamline their experiment workflow, which drives adoption and utilization of our cell analysis solutions and growth in our reagent and service businesses. As of September 30th, 2025, we had more than 22,600 Cytek Cloud users, representing a remarkable growth of over 40% since the beginning of 2025. This represents an average of almost eight users per installed Cytek FSP instrument.

We believe this growth reflects the loyalty our users have to our product portfolio and the halo effect of the Cytek Cloud driving the utilization of our technology platform, including our recurring revenue offerings in reagents and service. As a reminder, our Cytek Cloud is transforming how researchers design and conduct complex flow cytometry experiments. At its core is our proprietary AI-powered Panel Builder, which saves weeks or months of time by automating critical steps like fluorophore selection and marker matching. Scientists can then conduct virtual experiments before committing to real wet lab studies, reducing trial and error and improving data quality from the start. Moving to clinical, we continue to believe the clinical market represents an attractive business opportunity for Cytek. In the third quarter, Cytek took center stage to showcase our complete cell analysis solutions at several industry conferences.

One notable event was the ESCCA meeting in Montpellier, France in September. The event featured presentations by independent researchers discussing the importance of spectral flow cytometry in performing in vitro diagnostic procedures and acknowledging that Cytek's Northern Lights-CLC system is the only spectral analyzer approved for clinical use in the EU. With that, I will now turn the call over to Bill for more details about our financials.

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Thanks, Wenbin. Turning to slide seven and our third quarter financial results, total revenue for Q3 was $52.3 million, a 2% increase versus Q3 of 2024. This reflects strong growth in service and reagents worldwide, in instruments in Asia-Pacific, and stabilization in U.S. instrument revenues. These were offset by continued weakness in EMEA instrument revenues. We saw 14% growth in total revenues from biopharma customers globally versus the year-ago quarter, offset by a similar decline in revenues from government and academic customers. Product revenue, which is comprised of instruments and reagents, decreased 4% versus Q3 of 2024, driven by a 26% decline in EMEA, offset by 19% growth in APAC. U.S. product revenue was up 20% versus Q2, but flat versus Q3 of 2024, which was the strongest quarter of product revenue in 2024.

Our performance in the U.S. was attributable to a 10% increase in instrument revenue from pharma and biotech customers, driven by the launch of our new Aurora Evo instrument and an improved industry environment. This was offset by a 13% decline in instrument sales to academic and government customers as funding pressures continued. In EMEA, the decline in product revenue was primarily driven by a significant percentage decline in revenue from academic and government customers, which we believe is a result of a shift in government spending priorities and a single-digit decline from pharma, biotech, and CRO accounts. While our reagent revenue is still a single-digit percentage of our total revenue, it achieved its highest-ever quarterly revenue in Q3, representing 21% growth over the prior year quarter.

As Wenbin mentioned, this was largely due to a concerted effort by our reagents team to shorten delivery times and to improve customer service. Service continued to deliver strong revenue growth, with 19% growth in Q3 versus the prior year quarter. This was driven by growth in the installed base and active usage of our systems. Turning to geographic market performance, U.S. revenue grew 12% in Q3 versus prior year, driven by service revenue growth. EMEA declined 28% due to lower instrument revenue. APAC, including China, increased 25% in Q3, driven by growth in instruments, service, and reagents. GAAP gross profit was $27.6 million, a 5% decrease versus Q3 of 2024. GAAP gross profit margin was 53% versus 56% in the prior year quarter.

This was due to both a lower service gross margin resulting from an increase in headcount and travel costs and a lower product gross margin as a result of lower product revenues, higher materials and tariff costs, and higher overhead. GAAP gross margin improved sequentially from 52% in Q2 due to higher product gross margins on higher product revenues and improved overhead absorption. Adjusted gross profit margin, which excludes stock-based compensation and amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, was 55% in Q3, down from 60% in the prior year quarter and down from 56% in Q2. Operating expenses were $36.7 million in Q3, up $3.5 million, or 10% versus Q3 2024. This was driven by higher general and administrative expenses, partially offset by lower R&D and sales and marketing expenses.

Research and development expenses were $9 million, down 9% versus the year-ago quarter, primarily due to lower headcount and compensation expenses, partially offset by higher engineering expenses. Sales and marketing expenses were $11.7 million, down 6% versus the year-ago quarter, due to lower headcount and compensation expenses and lower outside services expenses. General and administrative expenses were $16.1 million, up $5.2 million, or 47% from the year-ago quarter. The increase was primarily attributable to legal expenses related to a patent litigation case and, to a lesser extent, a $0.7 million non-recurring non-cash write-off of deferred offering costs for an at-the-market equity financing facility entered into in 2022, which expired in the current quarter. Loss from operations was $9.2 million for Q3 versus $4.2 million in the year-ago quarter, driven by $1.5 million lower GAAP gross profit and $3.5 million higher operating expenses.

Net loss was $5.5 million in Q3 versus net income of $0.9 million in the prior year quarter. This was driven by three factors. First. Higher loss from operations of $5 million, as mentioned above. Secondly, net other income decreased by $3 million to $1.4 million from $4.4 million in the prior year quarter. This was primarily driven by $0.9 million of FX losses in the current quarter versus $1.1 million of FX gains in the prior year quarter and lower interest income of $0.9 million. The higher loss from operations and lower net other income, totaling $8 million, were offset by an increased tax benefit of $2.3 million in the current quarter as a result of a higher effective tax rate versus a tax benefit of $0.8 million in the prior year quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes stock-based compensation, foreign exchange impacts, and the non-recurring charge of $0.7 million for the write-off of deferred offering costs, declined to $2.5 million from $7.6 million in the year-ago quarter. This was due to lower gross profits of $1.5 million and higher operating expenses of $3.5 million due to the factors I described above. Free cash flow was slightly negative at minus $0.3 million in the quarter, modestly decreasing our total cash and marketable securities to $261.7 million. Lastly, turning to our full-year guidance on slide eight. We are reaffirming our full-year 2025 revenue outlook for a range of $196 million-$205 million, assuming no change in currency exchange rates. This is based on our year-to-date results, our pipeline of instrument sale opportunities for Q4, and the good momentum we see in our service and reagent businesses.

Our performance this quarter showed continued strong growth in instruments in APAC, stabilization in U.S. instruments, and solid growth in our recurring revenue businesses. We expect these trends to continue, and our outlook remains consistent with our views in previous quarters that we would see slowly improving trends as the year progressed. We have noted this in the U.S. market, whereas EMEA remains challenged. Importantly, we continue to believe our performance in Q3 and in 2025 year-to-date reflects a strong market leadership position in what has been a difficult environment. Our core business is showing positive growth in all regions except EMEA, and our recurring revenue continues to grow. Notwithstanding some temporarily elevated operating expenses, we delivered positive adjusted EBITDA, which we anticipate will continue in Q4. We believe we will perform well relative to the overall flow cytometry market, which is also beginning to show signs of stabilization.

Finally, our strong balance sheet also gives us the ability to continue investing for growth. With that, I will turn it back over to Wenbin.

Wenbin Jiang (CEO)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Particularly biopharma companies' budget on a calendar year basis. As they get into Q4, they have some incentive to spend the remaining amount that hasn't been spent in order to make sure they spend the whole budget.

Noah Lewis (Analyst)

Got it. Maybe last thing, oh, oh, okay. Yeah, sorry. I was going to say my last one was just on capital deployment. You talked about a pretty strong balance sheet. You expect to be free cash flow positive. Any appetite for more share buybacks, maybe what you are seeing in the acquisition pipeline, if there is any interest there?

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Yeah. Short answer is we aim to, our objective is to do both share repurchase and M&A. To size our share repurchase, what we have done in the past is sized our share repurchase to be approximately equal to free cash flow. Year-to-date, we've actually spent more than our free cash flow on share repurchase. As a result of that, because we were in excess of free cash flow, we didn't buy any shares in the third quarter. Generally, our objective is to buy. Our approach to share repurchase is to be opportunistic and to buy when we think it's particularly favorable, but to size those purchases at somewhere broadly in the range of our free cash flow. We are not making any changes to that general approach, and we'll execute as we see opportunities going forward.

With respect to M&A, we continue to review a number of different opportunities. As you know, M&A opportunities are episodic, and they come and go in sort of an irregular pattern. We are seeing things, we are reviewing things, and it's our objective to grow through both organic and inorganic means.

Noah Lewis (Analyst)

Awesome. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

That ends our Q&A session, and we appreciate your participation. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

Cytek Biosciences - Earnings Call - Q3 2025

Executive Summary

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Paul Goodson (Head of Investor Relations)

Wenbin Jiang (CEO)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Wenbin Jiang (CEO)

Operator (participant)

David Westenberg (Analyst)

Wenbin Jiang (CEO)

David Westenberg (Analyst)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

David Westenberg (Analyst)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

David Westenberg (Analyst)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

David Westenberg (Analyst)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Operator (participant)

Brendan Smith (Analyst)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Operator (participant)

Harrison Parsons (Analyst)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Harrison Parsons (Analyst)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Harrison Parsons (Analyst)

Wenbin Jiang (CEO)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Wenbin Jiang (CEO)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Harrison Parsons (Analyst)

Operator (participant)

Noah Lewis (Analyst)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Noah Lewis (Analyst)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Noah Lewis (Analyst)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Noah Lewis (Analyst)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Noah Lewis (Analyst)

Bill McCombe (CFO)

Noah Lewis (Analyst)

Operator (participant)