Incyte Corp. (NASDAQ:INCY) has reported first-quarter results that missed analyst estimates, though its net loss for the period was much smaller than a year earlier.
Incyte reported a first-quarter net loss of US$41.1mln, or US$0.19 a share, compared to a net loss of US$187mln, or $US0.96 a share, in the first quarter of 2017. On a non-GAAP basis, the biopharmaceutical company posted a net loss of US$2.6mln, or US$0.01 a share, compared to net income of US$29.1mln, or US$0.14 a share, a year earlier. Yahoo Finance put the average earnings estimate of 10 analysts at a profit of $US0.01 a share.
Revenue at Incyte slipped less than 1% to US$382.3mln from US$384.1mln, which included milestone revenue of US$90mln in the first quarter of 2017. Yahoo Finance put the average revenue estimate of 15 analysts at US$390mln.
Despite the modest top- and bottom-line misses, investors did not punish the stock of Incyte, which was up around 1% in mid-morning trading at US$61.50 a share.
Oppenheimer analyst Silvan Tuerkcan also was not hard on the company. Tuerkcan said Oppenheimer was "encouraged by the potential" for Incyte drugs ruxolitinib and itacitinib in patients with steroid-refractory acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and looked forward to the latest clinical trial results in May or June.
Looking ahead, Incyte raised its estimate of expected research-and-development expenses in 2018 to a range of US$1.2bn to US$1.3bn from its previous range of $1.15bn to US$1.25 bn.