Wednesday, September 23, 2020

New Leadership Driving New Interest In Pacific Biosciences

It's been a little wild lately for Pacific Biosciences (PACB) ("PacBio"). While there have been several strong names in life sciences over the past three months and on a year-to-date basis, including companies like 10x Genomics (TXG), Berkeley Lights (BLI), and Nanostring (NSTG), PacBio has sprinted ahead about 125% since my last update, largely, I believe, on renewed optimism around the naming of Christian Henry as the company's new CEO.

PacBio's technology is solid - I believe it has the best technology and products for long-read sequencing - but the commercial execution has never been. With Henry previously having served as Illumina's (ILMN) Chief Commercial Officer, among other roles in a long career at that leading sequencing company, I believe he brings the experience and know-how to meaningfully improve PacBio's go-to-market efforts.

With the shares so much higher now, I believe the story is more reliant on execution now than before. While I do believe Henry will lead the company to significant improvement here, it won't happen overnight, and I do still see quarter-to-quarter volatility risks. While I do still see the double-digit upside here, expectations are significantly higher.

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New Leadership Driving New Interest In Pacific Biosciences

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