Amyris reaches positive cash flow for Q1 2015; records more than $30M of cash revenue inflows
In California, Amyris announced positive cash flow of $1.7 million in the first quarter despite negative currency effect of $1.2 million. Overall, Amyris recorded Q1 2015 non-GAAP cash revenue inflows of $30.3 million, compared with $17.9 million for Q1 2014. Total Q1 2015 revenues were $7.9 million, an increase of 30% compared with same quarter last year. Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $44.9 million at March 31, 2015, an increase from $43.4 million at December 31, 2014.
“We’re pleased with our continued execution toward diversifying and growing our revenue base through an expanding number of collaborations and product commercialization efforts,” said John Melo, Amyris President & CEO. “During the quarter – and, more recently – we announced several key examples of these efforts, including several market opportunities in the cosmetics, biopharma and performance materials areas of our business. We are also seeing signs of increased end-user demand pull through in cosmetics for our squalane product as customer demand reported from our formulation partners is exceeding expectations.”
Continued Melo, “We’re experiencing strong early response and acceptance of our new product introductions and expect a strong second half in product revenue and collaboration inflows with strong support for delivering on our 2015 cash revenue inflows target of between $100 million to $110 million.”
Pavel Molchanov, Raymond James
After a period of retooling while in the “overpromise and underdeliver” penalty box, 2013-2014 were Amyris’ first years with operations truly in commercial mode, and 1Q15 marked the first quarter in the company’s history with operating cash flow in positive territory. That said, historical reliance on partner-based R&D payments makes quarterly financials choppy. In fact, this is a notable milestone for the overall bioindustrial space, since just about all the pure-plays (public and private) have historically been in cash-burn mode.
In addition to updates on the production ramp-up at the Brotas plant, the market wants to see more clarity on the pace at which Total will be scaling up its fuels JV with Amyris – a questionable prospect in the context of the oil and gas industry’s current period of austerity. Guidance for 2015 remained at $100-110 million of total cash revenue inflows, fairly balanced between product sales and R&D revenue. We maintain our Market Perform rating with a a DCF value of $2.71/share.
Jeffrey Osborne, Cowen & Company
Revenue and GM is expected to improve in the 2Q15 & 2H15 with the launch of two new products, Biossance and Muck Daddy. We see these products as important milestones in Amyris’s continued journey to commercialize its science. Looking further into 2015, Amyris will focus on growing top line sales through the expansion of its product portfolio, with focus on developing products to access greater downstream value and expanding its existing portfolio to new markets. Management expects revenue to accelerate in the 2Q15 and beyond, in line with the launch of the Biossance and Muck Daddy product lines as well as forecast improvement in the diesel sector. Revenue was impacted by the continued sluggishness in the diesel business. Marklet Perform, Price Target: $2.50
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