Cytek Biosciences (CTKB) Q1 2026 earnings call transcript

Thank you, Operator. Earlier today, Cytek Biosciences released financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026. 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 investors at cytechbio. com. A copy of the news release is also available on the Investor Relations section of Cytek's website at investors. cytechbio. com.

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. Joining me today from Cytek are Wenbin Zhang, CEO, and Bill McComb, CFO. As a reminder, on slide two, 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 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 May 7, 2026.

With that, I will turn the call over to Wen Ben.

Thanks, Paul. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for your interest in Cytek. On today's call, I would like to start with a discussion on our performance in the first quarter of 2026. Before turning the call over to Bill for a detailed look at our financial and our guidance outlook for the full year.

Turning to slide 3. First quarter 2026 revenue was $44.1 million, representing 6% growth year-over-year compared to $41.5 million in Q1 2025. This reflects continued positive momentum from the second half of 2025 and marks a constructive start to the year and what appears to be a return to normal market conditions in the U. S. continued circular growth in APAC, excluding China, returning revenue growth globally, and the diversity of our portfolio. Importantly, we believe our revenue growth in the first quarter was particularly notable against the continued broad market challenges in the Lifespan tools industry.

This performance further demonstrates Cytek technology leadership, as is also evidenced by the strong customer demand for the Cytek Aurora EVO analyzer since its launch last year. Further, our growing install base continues to feel expansion in our service and region businesses. As represented by the continued growth, we are seeing with recurring revenue as a percentage of total revenue.

Turning to slide four, looking at total revenue geographically, in the U. S. , first quarter revenue was $24.4 million, An increase of 32% compared to $18.5 million in Q1 of last year. Our strength in the U. S. was blood-based and included sales to leading academic institutions and biopharma companies. These organizations continue to be repeat buyers, with a high percentage of them having purchased at least one instrument from us in the prior four quarters. I'm pleased to report that our Aurora flagship products continue to gain traction with these buyers, which suggests how well Cytek's products have been addressing the needs of our user base. In a year, first quarter Lemieux was $10.8 million, a decrease of 7% versus Q1 2018.

In the region was softer in the quarter due to disruption caused by the conflict in the Middle East and an end-of-quarter shipment delay in another region.

These pressures were partially offset by continued growth in our service business. APAC, including China, declined 13% year-over-year, primarily due to accelerated order timing in the first quarter of last year in China.

Excluding China, the remainder of APAC continued to show very strong growth across instruments, reagents, and service. Turning to slide 5, our recurring revenue base continued to strengthen in the first quarter. We combine the regions and service revenue reaching million in the first quarter on a trading 12 basis in the first quarter Recording revenue represented 35 of total revenue and notably grew 19 year over year We expect recurring revenue to represent an increasing percentage of total revenue over time, driven by faster growth in our service and region businesses. Service revenue alone grew 15% year-over-year to $15.4 million, continuing to benefit from growth in our install database and the active utilization of our instruments by customers worldwide.

Region revenue grew mid-teens on a percentage basis over Q1 of 2025, also reflecting active usage of our install database. I would now like to update you on the progress our team has made across our core strategic pillars, instruments, applications, bioinformatics, and clinicals to further reinforce science's position as a market leader in next-gen cell analysis solutions. Starting with our core instruments on slide 6, we continue to expand our global footprint in the first quarter, adding 125 units and bringing Cytek's total installed base to 3,789 units. Instrument unit performance was a key highlight in the first quarter with total unit volume increase of 9% year-over-year, including a 3% year-over-year increase of FSP instruments.

We are also pleased with the ongoing market description for the Cytek Aurora EVO system. Since its introduction, it has consistently driven revenue and unit volume growth, revenue for the Aurora Analyzer category up 8% year-over-year.

We believe our continued focus on technological differentiation positions cited well in the broader flow cytometry market. Turning to our next growth pillar, the locations, which is comprised of our religion business. Region revenue grew 16% versus Q1 2025. Region revenue growth was a broad base across regions, with particular strength in APEC and the rest of the world regions, where region revenue together grew more than 40% year-over-year, and the double digits in the U. S. Our region strength in Q1 reflects the continued benefits of the initiatives we undertook in 2025, including best-in-class delivery times, expanded region offerings, and our dedicated region sales team.

Our bioinformatics platform continues to deepen customer engagement and support our region growth engine. As of March 31, 2026, Cytek Crowd has grown to more than 26,000 users, representing an average of eight users per in-store Cytek FFP instrument.

As users on the Cytek Crowd increase, the value proposition of our integrated ecosystem strengthens and enhances customer engagement. Turning to slide 7, as part of our strategic and business growth process, we have been planning to refocus our operations into three distinct customer-aligned business units, which will be completed in the third quarter of this year. The new solutions and clinical business unit will bring accessible platforms such as reagents, guava-muse-micro, and northern life into markets, historically dominated by larger income, while the research technology business unit will continue to advance cytex leadership in high parameter flow cytometry within the research-use-only market. This structure will create more focus on aligning marketing, sales, and R&D resources to expand Cytek's share of the region and low-mid-tier instrument market.

Together, these two units position Cytek to capture two major business opportunities. First, for the solution and critical business unit, growth in region consumables and low-fumature instruments for QA and QC are workflows. And second, for research technology, a robust, high-performance instrument replacement cycle with tens of thousands of instruments eventually needing to be replaced.

Finally, our service business unit will provide the foundation that supports the install base of instruments for both the solutions and clinical and the research technology units. Collectively, this structure positions Cytek to accelerate its next phase of growth and reinforce our competitive leadership as the market evolves. Under the new solutions and clinical guidance unit, we see meaningful growth opportunities in the clinical research market, where the need for high-parameter, high-performance cell analysis solutions is growing.

In part, this is already being reflected by an increase in the aging cells supporting clinical applications. The Cytek technology platform is well suited to support this expansion, and we are investing to meet the evolving needs of clinical researchers and translational scientists. Now, I would like to ask Bill to review our financials.

Thanks, Wendan. Again, first quarter 2026 revenue was $44.1 million, an increase of 6% year-over-year compared to $41.5 million in Q1 2025. As Wenbin noted, revenue growth was led by strong growth in U. S. instruments and continued double-digit growth in both global services and reagents. These were partially offset by disruptions and softer instrument demand in EMEA and the order timing-related slowdown in APAC.

Turning to slide eight, product revenue comprised of instruments and reagents was $28.8 million, an increase of approximately 2% year over year. U product revenue rebounded strongly compared to a weak Q125 returning to a more normal growth path consistent with the years prior to last year This was driven by improved sentiment and strong demand growth in both the academic and government and biopharma customer segments The media product revenue declined versus Q125 as a result of lost orders due to the Middle East conflicts, an end-of-quarter shipping delay in another region, and softer instrument demand.

In APAC, product revenue was also lower. This was due to the acceleration of orders in China in the first half of last year into Q1. Growth in other APAC regions in Q1 of this year was very high on a year-over-year basis, and the overall secular growth trend of the region remained strong. Reagents continued on a strong growth trajectory with 16% quarter-over-quarter growth, primarily driven by the U. S. and APAC regions.

Service revenue was $15.4 million, growing 15% year-over-year, driven by our expanding installed base of instruments and active system utilization globally. Turning to total revenues by geographic region, U. S. revenues grew 32%, driven by a strong rebound in instruments, as I mentioned before, and continued growth in services. AMIA was down 7% due to the Middle East conflicts and the end of quarter shipping delay I mentioned before.

APAC was also down 13% due to the order timing issue, as I mentioned before. Turning to slide nine, GAAP gross profit was $21.3 million in Q1 2026, representing a gross margin of 48% compared to 49% in Q1 2025. Product gross margin was flat versus the year-ago quarter, whereas service gross margin was slightly lower due to higher labor costs.

Adjusted gross margin, which excludes stock-based compensation and amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, was 51% in the first quarter compared to 52% in the prior year quarter. For subsequent quarters of this year, we expect gross margins to increase as our revenue increases consistent with our typical seasonal pattern. Total operating expenses were $39.7 million in Q1, up 13% versus Q1 of 2025. Research and development expenses were $9.6 million, down 1% versus Q1.25 due to lower compensation expenses. Sales and marketing expenses were $11.6 million, down 7% versus Q1.25 due to lower compensation and selling commission expenses. General and administrative expenses were $18.5 million, up $5.6 million, or 43%. The increase was primarily due to higher legal expenses associated with a previously disclosed patent litigation case, outside consulting expenses, and bad debt reserves.

The loss from operations was $18.5 million in the current quarter versus $15 million in the year-ago quarter. Gap net loss in the first quarter was $18.9 million compared to a gap net loss of $11.4 million in the prior year quarter. The increased gap net loss was primarily due to higher operating expenses of $4.6 million, lower other income due to a $1.2 million foreign exchange loss in the current quarter compared to a $1.3 million FX gain in the prior year quarter, and a tax expense of $1.5 million versus a tax expense of $0.1 million a year ago.

Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes stock-based compensation and foreign exchange impacts, was a loss of $9.1 million in Q1 2026, compared to a loss of $3.3 million in Q1 2025. The increased adjusted EBITDA loss was primarily due to the $4.6 million increase in operating expenses and $1.8 million lower stock-based compensation, which is an ad-back. We expect adjusted EBITDA to increase in subsequent quarters driven by normal seasonal revenue patterns and that we will deliver positive adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2026. Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaled $262.2 million as of March 31, 2026, compared to $261.5 million at year-end 2025.

Our strong balance sheet continues to provide the financial flexibility to invest in our global growth priorities. Turning to slide 10, today we are reaffirming our full year 2026 revenue guidance of $205 million to $212 million, assuming no change in currency exchange rates. This outlook reflects the positive growth we've seen recently in the U. S. and APAC, as well as some stabilization in the EU.

With that, I will turn it back over to Wenbin.

Thanks, Bill. Turning to slide 11, I want to close by thanking the entire Cytek team for their continued focus and execution on behalf of our customers and shareholders.

Our first quarter performance reflects the ongoing resilience and diversification of our business model. Our recurring revenue base continues to grow and now represents 35% of total revenue on a trading 12-month basis. A testament to the value of our growing installer base and the strength of our customer relationships. Our priorities for 2026 remain clear and consistent, accelerating the market penetration of our instrument platforms, advancing our technological leadership through continuous innovation, expanding our recurring revenue line, and delivering profitable, sustainable growth.

We believe the investment we have made in our products, our people, and our operational infrastructure position cited well for the remainder of 2026 and beyond. I want to thank everyone for joining today's call. We will now open it up for questions.

This is Bill. So the way that we put together the guide and what we're reaffirming today is continued growth in services and reagents at levels, you know, broadly consistent with recent quarters. And then flat to modest growth in instruments, and then on top of that, a contingency for unforeseen or developing macro risks. And, you know, that's the framework. We feel very comfortable with the growth in services and reagents. The instrument market is, you know, we did see positive growth in Q1. And, you know, we don't see any reason why that shouldn't continue.

But, you know, as we all know, there are macro risks out there, so we'd like to have a contingency in our guide in order to cover for things that we can't foresee at the moment.

As we will release shortly or about to release in the queue, the customer mix for the quarter overall was 62% biopharma, distributors, CRO, and 38% academic and government. So that's the Q1 mix. Generally speaking, you know, last, for full year 25, that mix was 58, 42. So it was a little higher. We had a stronger performance in the biopharma segment. As it relates to Aurora Evo, I don't have the numbers to hand, and we don't usually report customer mix down to that level, other than to say this is a product. that was really designed for the pharma customer with its higher throughput, but it's seen a strong reception in both customer segments, both by a pharma and academic and government.

Remember anything you would add to that? And also included integrated intelligence automatic shutdown and turn on, and all of those will really help the researchers to schedule planning. And it has also integrated nanoparticle detection in the system.

Academic and government in Q1, you know, was up in the U. S. , was up substantially on Q1 of last year. And it was back to a level more consistent with what we've seen in years prior to 2025.

You know, in fact, it was our strongest first quarter in U. S. academic and government in, you know, in a number of years, maybe ever. So we did see a strong rebound to more normal levels.

And with respect to NIH funding, I mean, the budget, we saw strong disbursements in Q4 of last year. You know, momentum in the academic and government market seems to have carried over into Q1. And, you know, the budget for this coming year is obviously still under discussion in Congress. The initial proposal from the administration was not as draconian as the initial proposal last year. So we'll have to see where it settles out. But, you know, in the first quarter, our academic and government sector performance in the U. S. was pretty strong.

We're going to continue to invest at a good level. You know, this was more of a quarterly blip than a trend, but, you know, we expect to continue investing aggressively in sales and marketing for the balance of the year.