What Happened?
Shares of genomics company Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ:PACB) fell 7.5% in the afternoon session after the market continued to react negatively to the company's third-quarter financial results, which missed Wall Street expectations. Management pointed to a slowdown in instrument shipments, especially its Vega systems in Europe, and lower average selling prices for its Revio systems as the main reasons for the underperformance. The company's CEO also described the funding environment in the Americas as “challenging,” which made it take longer for some academic and government research customers to make purchases. Adding to investor concerns, the company is not yet profitable and reported a net loss of $38 million in the last quarter.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks. Is now the time to buy PacBio? Access our full analysis report here.
What Is The Market Telling Us
PacBio’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 82 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 1 day ago when the stock gained 2.8% on the news that an analyst at Stephens & Co. raised the price target on the stock while maintaining a positive rating. Analyst Mason Carrico boosted the price target for Pacific Biosciences to $2.00 from $1.80, which marked an increase of over 11%. The firm also kept its 'Overweight' rating on the shares. This action signaled continued confidence from the analyst that the stock could perform well relative to others in its sector. The update provided a positive signal for investors, suggesting a more optimistic outlook on the company's valuation.
PacBio is down 3.6% since the beginning of the year, and at $1.74 per share, it is trading 25.9% below its 52-week high of $2.34 from October 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of PacBio’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $103.74.
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