Cytek Biosciences (CTKB) Q3 2026 Earnings Call: Gross Margin Reaches 59%

Key Takeaways

• Cytek Biosciences reported Q3 2026 revenue of $53.2 million, up 2% year over year, led by 12% growth in the U.S.
• GAAP gross margin rose to 59% from 53% a year earlier, benefiting from higher product and service margins, lower material costs, lower tariffs and the manufacturing transfer from Seattle to Singapore.
• Combined Aurora and Aurora EVO placements increased 23% year over year, with Aurora EVO placements nearly doubling. The company added 140 instruments, bringing its installed base to 4,073.
• Service revenue grew 13% year over year. Combined service and reagent revenue reached $19.1 million and represented 36% of last-12-month revenue, up from 33% a year earlier.
• Cytek narrowed its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $208 million-$211 million while maintaining the midpoint. Management continues to expect adjusted EBITDA around breakeven.
• APAC revenue remained a pressure point, falling 25% year over year despite increasing 5% sequentially. Biopharma, distributor and CRO revenue declined about 17% against a strong prior-year quarter.

Core Financial Results

Business and Operating Performance

The U.S. generated $30.4 million of revenue, up 12% year over year, supported by high-end instrument demand, academic and government customers, and service growth. EMEA revenue increased 1% to $12.5 million after two quarters of declines. APAC, including China, produced $8.3 million, up 5% sequentially but down 25% year over year.

Academic and government revenue rose 38% to $24.5 million across all regions. In the U.S., instrument revenue from this end market increased more than 60%. By contrast, biopharma, distributor and CRO revenue fell approximately 17% to $28.7 million, partly reflecting weaker APAC and China markets and a difficult comparison.

High-end platforms remained the main product driver. Revenue from the Aurora, Aurora EVO and Borealis category grew more than 30%, while high-end full-spectrum profiling instrument revenue increased 11%. Combined Aurora and Aurora EVO placements rose 23%, with demand supported by large-panel performance, throughput and automation capabilities.

Cytek doubled the size of Borealis’ early-access program during the quarter. Management plans to expand the program in Q4 and target a broader commercial launch in fiscal 2027, including integrated imaging capabilities.

The Cytek Cloud user base approached 30,000 at quarter-end, increasing more than 20% since the start of 2026. Management described the platform primarily as an ecosystem connecting instruments, reagents, panel design and data analysis rather than a standalone profit source.

Management Guidance

Cytek narrowed full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $208 million-$211 million, assuming no change in current foreign exchange rates. The midpoint was maintained.

Management expects Q4 revenue to be meaningfully higher than Q3, consistent with normal seasonality, year-end customer purchasing and continued service growth. Service revenue is expected to grow at rates similar to recent quarters, with product revenue making up the balance.

The company continues to expect full-year adjusted EBITDA around breakeven. Management said Q4 profitability should benefit from higher seasonal revenue and a $3 million-$4 million sequential reduction in legal expenses.

For 2027, Cytek did not provide numerical guidance. Management said it expects to outgrow the market and improve profitability, supported by high-end products, the Borealis launch and investment in low- to mid-range instruments and reagents.

Risks and Points to Watch

• APAC and China remained weak year over year, with management citing macroeconomic factors in those markets.
• Product revenue declined as strength in high-end analyzers was offset by lower imaging and mid- to low-end instrument sales.
• Q4 guidance depends partly on normal year-end purchasing patterns and a seasonal revenue increase.
• G&A expense rose 14% to $18.4 million, including a $3 million increase in patent-litigation costs associated with the August trial.
• In the patent case, the jury found in Cytek’s favor on three of four asserted claims. On the fourth, it found no literal infringement but found infringement under an equivalents theory. Cytek filed post-trial motions and said the verdict does not require product or operational changes or affect its ability to sell and ship products.
• Implementation of the company’s new business-unit structure was postponed until the start of 2027 to reduce the execution risk of reorganizing midyear.

Analyst Q&A Highlights

Management said the broader market environment has improved compared with early 2025 and characterized current conditions as generally positive.

Biopharma revenue was up 3% year to date despite the Q3 decline. Management remained positive on the U.S. segment, citing available year-end budgets and the Aurora EVO’s throughput and automation features. It also noted that distributor-heavy APAC sales are reported within the biopharma, CRO and distributor category, magnifying the effect of regional weakness.

On supply, management said most orders are booked and shipped within the same quarter. Production of Borealis and enhanced-automation Aurora EVO systems is increasing, but the company does not view supply constraints as a significant issue.

Full Earnings Call Transcript

Complete Earnings Call Transcript

Management Remarks

Operator

Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is Lacy, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Cytek Biosciences Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Mark Meehan, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Mark Meehan

Thank you, operator. Joining me today from Cytek are Wenbin Young, CEO; and Bill McCombe, CFO. Earlier today, Cytek Biosciences released financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 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 e-mail to investors@cytekbio.com. A copy of the news release is also available on the Investor Relations section of Cytek's website at investors.cytekbio.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.

As a reminder, on Slide 2, 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 the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP.

This call will also provide a brief update about our active patent litigation. For more complete information about this case as well as countersuits that we have instituted, please refer to our previous press release as well as our SEC filings, including our Form 10-Q to be filed today. Except as required by law, Cytek disclaims any duty to update 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, November 4, 2026.

With that, I will turn the call over to Wenbin.

Wenbin Jiang

Thanks, Mark. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for your interest in Cytek. On today's call, I will start with a discussion on our performance in the third quarter and review some business highlights before turning the call over to Bill for a detailed look at our financial results and our full year outlook. Turning to Slides 3 and 4. We delivered another solid result in the third quarter with revenue of $53.2 million, an increase of 2% year-over-year. Our third quarter was highlighted by growth in the U.S. driven by continued strong demand for our high-end full spectrum profiling instruments led by Aurora EVO, the double-digit growth in our service business and by our robust gross margin performance.

Growth in the third quarter was led by the U.S., where revenue grew 12% year-over-year to $30.4 million, continued strong momentum from the first half, driven by instrument sales to academic and government customers and continued service growth. In EMEA, third quarter revenue was $12.5 million, up 1% year-over-year, a positive sign after a challenging first half that reflected improving instrument sales to academic and government customers. Total APAC revenue, including China was $8.3 million, up 5% sequentially versus Q2, while being down 25% compared to a strong Q3 last year.

Turning to Slide 5. The third quarter was highlighted by success at the high end, where our technology leadership continues to shine. Customers are choosing Aurora EVO as it lets them run large panels and get consistent reproducible data at higher throughput. The automation configurations we introduced last quarter further increased the value to customers with the API for automated handling system fitting well into the high-volume workflows of biopharma and CRO customers. Combined Aurora and Aurora EVO placements grew 23% year-over-year with EVO placements nearly doubling year-over-year, reflecting robust demand for our next-generation platform. As a result of strong placements, high-end full spectrum profiling instrument revenue grew 11%. Across the broader business, we added a total of 140 instruments in the quarter, bringing our total installed base to 4,073 units.

Borealis, our newest platform, which we introduced last quarter, is receiving strong interest from customers in both the academic and biopharma markets, and we doubled the size of our early access program during Q3. As a reminder, Borealis is a laser full spectrum profiling cytometer with 60 color performance already demonstrated and a clear path to go higher as new dyes and panels are developed. It will also include integrated imaging capabilities when we get to full commercial launch. Paired with our new proprietary cFluor reagents, Borealis enables 60 color panels in a single tube while also supporting nanoparticle analysis and higher sampling rates. Early access program customers are excited about how these capabilities can enhance insight and accelerate discovery in their labs. We will continue to expand the early access program in the fourth quarter with a broader commercial launch planned for fiscal year 2027.

Turning to Slide 6. During the third quarter, we launched a new Cytek Cloud analysis tool, the industry's first end-to-end platform that integrates the entire flow cytometry workflow from panel design to data analysis into one system. This will allow researchers to have a seamless experience from experiment planning through data analysis, reducing the need to move between systems or recreate workflows. Cloud analysis is available in the U.S. through Cytek Cloud Premium, a new subscription tier that adds cloud-based data analysis and online data storage. The launch is an important milestone towards our vision of Cytek Cloud as a comprehensive digital ecosystem that supports both cytometry workflows from beginning to end.

As of the end of the third quarter, the total Cytek Cloud user base is approaching 30,000, up more than 20% since the start of the year. Our recurring revenue base continued to grow in the third quarter. Combined service and reagent revenue was $19.1 million in Q3 2026 and represented 36% of Cytek's last 12 months revenue, up from 33% for the 12 months ended September 30, 2025. We expect recurring revenue to represent an increasing percentage of total revenue over time. During the quarter, we also had important developments in our patent litigation case. As we announced on August 21, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware found in our favor on 3 of the 4 asserted claims in both infringement and invalidity for each of those 3 claims. On the fourth claim, the jury found no legal infringement, but did find infringement under the adoption of equivalents. We do not believe that the applicable legal criteria for infringement and the adoption of equivalents have been met.

We filed posttrial motions asking the court to overturn the verdict on this and other grounds, and we intend to pursue all available legal remedies. The jury verdict does not require any change to our product offering or operations and our ability to sell and ship products is not affected. Notably, the patent is a U.S. patent and only applies to sales of instruments made in or imported into the United States.

Finally, I wanted to share an update on the new business unit structure we introduced earlier this year. After careful review, we have decided to postpone the implementation of these business units until the start of 2027. We judged the near-term risk of moving to our new organization structure midyear to be too significant. We remain confident that the new structure is the best way to support our long-term growth, but we recognize the critical need to deliver throughout the remainder of 2026. We are continuing to focus resources and build out our teams to grow our clinical and solution-focused instruments and reagents.

Stepping back, we were pleased with the overall performance of our business. The third quarter was highlighted by continued success of our high-end Aurora EVO and Polaris analyzers by the double-digit growth in our service business and as Bill will detail shortly, the strong execution from our operations team, which resulted in our best third quarter gross margins since 2023. With top line performance in line with our prior expectations, we are reiterating the midpoint of our full year 2026 revenue guidance. And with that, I will now turn the call over to Bill for additional details on our Q3 financials and our full year outlook.

William McCombe

Thanks, Wenbin. Turning to Slide 7. Third quarter revenue came in at $53.2 million, an increase of 2% compared to Q3 2025. The highlight for the quarter was the strong customer demand for our high-end analyzers with revenue growth of over 30% for the Aurora, Aurora EVO and Borealis category. This was the major factor driving U.S. total revenue growth of 12% and instrument growth of 9%. EMEA revenue returned to modest total revenue growth of 1% year-on-year and instrument growth of 3% after 2 quarters of declines. APAC, including China, grew 5% sequentially compared to Q2, but was down 25% compared to a strong Q3 '25. We saw particular strength in revenue from academic and government customers, which was up 38% year-over-year to $24.5 million, with strength across all regions. In the U.S., the largest region for the academic and government end market, instrument revenue grew more than 60%.

Biopharma distributor and CRO revenue declined approximately 17% year-over-year to $28.7 million against a strong Q3 last year. Product revenue, which is comprised of instruments and reagents was $37.2 million, a decrease of 3% year-over-year as strength in our high-end instruments was offset by declines in imaging and mid- to low-end instruments. Service revenue grew 13% year-over-year, driven by growth in our installed base and continued active utilization of our systems.

Turning to Slide 8. Turning to gross margin. As Wenbin mentioned, we had an outstanding result with GAAP gross profit of $31.2 million in Q3, representing a gross margin of 59% compared to 53% in Q3 2025, an increase of nearly 600 basis points as we benefited from both higher product gross margin and higher service gross margin. Product gross margin increased 770 basis points to 61% compared to 53% in Q3 last year. The increase was primarily due to lower overhead costs resulting from the completion of the transfer of manufacturing capacity from Seattle to Singapore and also lower material costs and lower tariffs. Service gross margin was 53%, up from 51% in Q3 2025, reflecting service revenue growth of 13%, which outpaced the 8% increase in service cost of sales.

We are now realizing the full benefit of the transfer of manufacturing from our Seattle site to our Singapore facility earlier this year. This move is part of our region-for-region manufacturing strategy, which gives us lower cost manufacturing capacity, greater supply flexibility and helps mitigate tariff-related cost pressures. Total operating expenses were $39.6 million in Q3, up 8% versus Q3 2025. Research and development expenses were $9.4 million, up 4%, while sales and marketing expenses were $11.9 million, up 2%. General and administrative expenses were $18.4 million, up $2.2 million or 14% compared to Q3 2025. This was due to a $3 million increase in legal expenses associated with our patent litigation and specifically the trial, which occurred in August. With the most expensive trial phase of this case behind us, we would expect our legal expenses to decline by $3 million to $4 million in the fourth quarter compared to Q3.

The loss from operations was $8.4 million in the third quarter compared to a $9.2 million loss in the year ago quarter. GAAP net loss was $6.1 million compared to a $5.5 million loss in the third quarter of 2025. The increase in GAAP net loss was due to a $1.5 million lower tax benefit, offset by a $0.8 million improvement in loss from operations. Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes stock-based compensation and foreign exchange gains and losses was $0.7 million in Q3 2026 compared to $2.5 million in Q3 2025. The decline was primarily due to lower investment income and higher operating expenses. We anticipate adjusted EBITDA to improve meaningfully in the fourth quarter as revenue increases with our normal seasonal pattern. Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and marketable securities totaled $256 million as of September 30, 2026, compared to $262 million as of June 30, 2026. Our strong balance sheet continues to provide the financial flexibility to invest in our global growth priorities.

Turning to Slide 9. We are maintaining the midpoint of our full year 2026 revenue guidance while narrowing the range to $208 million to $211 million. This assumes no change from current currency exchange rates. This reflects year-to-date results and the growth outlook across our markets. In the fourth quarter, we expect revenue to be meaningfully higher than in the third quarter, consistent with our normal seasonality, driven by typical customer year-end purchasing patterns and continued growth in our service business. For the full year 2026, we continue to expect adjusted EBITDA to be around breakeven, reflecting an anticipated strong fourth quarter results driven by the seasonal increase in revenue as well as a meaningful decrease in litigation spending. With that, I will turn it back over to Wenbin.

Wenbin Jiang

Thanks, Bill. I want to close by thanking the entire Cytek team for their continued dedication and execution on behalf of our stakeholders. Our third quarter was a solid one, and we expect a strong finish to the year. The results reflect the strength of our technology leadership in the flow cytometry industry. Looking ahead, we feel well positioned heading into next year. We continue to gain share as our new product portfolio strengthens our technology leadership position in biopharma and academic research markets. We also anticipate improving performance with clinical customers, driven by our new organizational structure and the benefits of our SMS collaboration in Europe. Finally, we expect to deliver improving profitability as we continue to drive leverage on increased volume and anticipate reduced G&A spend on litigation expenses. Thanks to everyone for joining today's call. We will now open it up for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Mason Carrico with Stephens.

Question-and-Answer Session

Harrison Parsons

This is Harrison on for Mason. Could you just start by walking us through the guidance range for 2026? Should we expect service revenue to continue to grow around the low double-digit clip in the fourth quarter and product revenue to make up the balance there?

William McCombe

Yes. Our service revenue has grown fairly consistently. So we expect that to continue. And at similar rates to recent quarters and the product revenue would be -- would make up the balance. That's right.

Harrison Parsons

And then looking ahead here at 2027, I think you previously pointed to the second half '26 growth rate is a fair jumping off point for next year. Does that framework still hold today? And how are you thinking about growth next year across the different?

Wenbin Jiang

I don't think we've commented specifically on giving guidance for growth in 2027. So I'm not going to comment on your framework there. What I will say is that we will continue to -- and we'll give more specific guidance when we announce Q4 revenue in late February, early March. But we would expect to outgrow the market in 2027. We are continuing to invest in our high-end product portfolio. We're going to, as you know, bring to market the Borealis analyzer with full imaging capability. That's slated for launch in 2027. We are investing substantial resources in growing our low to mid-range instruments and our reagent portfolio. So we'll maintain leadership in the high end, and we'll continue to invest in growing our business. And we would expect improving profitability. And I can't really give more specific guidance beyond that. But we would -- based on those investments and based on our performance so far, we would expect to outgrow the market and outgrow our peers.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Chad Wiatrowski with TD Cowen.

Chad Wiatrowski

I appreciate continued taking market share next year, plan to outgrow the market. Do you still feel like the markets may be flat? Or do you think we've returned to growth here across end markets?

William McCombe

I think the market growth has been better really going back to the fourth quarter of last year and the first 3 quarters of this year, we have certainly done better than the early part of 2025. The market has been better. Some of the headwinds that occurred back then have abated. So I think we feel that the market environment is generally positive.

Chad Wiatrowski

And then I guess on the Cytek Cloud user base, the growth is pretty impressive. Just wondering if internally, do you guys view that as maybe more of a moat to your instruments as these tools are used more broadly across workflows? Or is this something you think -- I know you started to maybe monetize it a little bit previously, but do you feel like there's a lot of juice to squeeze here and maybe that could be upside to service revenues?

Wenbin Jiang

The intention of Cytek Cloud is not to really squeeze any profit out of the platform by itself, right? And it is a tool to enable our users to leverage our full solutions, including our instrument reagents and panel design, data analysis altogether. So customers will stay with what we have.

Operator

Your final question comes from the line of David Westenberg with Piper Sandler.

Skye Gilbert

This is Skye on for Dave. Maybe first, can you just talk a bit more about biopharma? You've seen some growth in the past from large pharma and biotech customers. I know you called out the tough comp this quarter, but has the momentum slowed at all? And what does that mean for CROs and some of the smaller customers? And ultimately, how much of the demand now is reflecting ongoing fleet deployments versus individual instrument purchases?

William McCombe

Well, I would point out that year-to-date, biopharma is up 3%. And look, it's generally been lumpy. We did have some strong quarters towards the back end of last year. The other factor that influences our numbers as reporting -- as reported is that a disproportionate -- much higher share of overall sales in Asia Pac and China go through distributors, which we report in the biopharma, CRO and distributor category. So as I think we noted, the markets in APAC and China in the third quarter were quite a bit weaker, but primarily due to macroeconomic factors in those markets. So that has sort of dampened the growth of what we report as the biopharma CRO distributor category. So I think it's important to bear that in mind.

But we think the biopharma sector, particularly in the U.S., that they have money available for a year-end budget flush. We think that the Aurora EVO because of its high throughput and its automation capabilities is an excellent product for that market. So we remain generally quite positive on that market segment.

Skye Gilbert

And just lastly, in September, I think for a few of the instruments, you mentioned you were selling everything you can make and that orders were generally booked and shipped within the quarter. Where are you still supply constrained? Are there lead times or ordering patterns or other cancellations giving you better visibility in demand at this time?

Wenbin Jiang

Yes. Other than the small amounts, we generally book and ship -- we generally ship everything that we book within a quarter. When I -- when we made those comments at the end of -- on the Q2 call, we were talking about Borealis and the Aurora EVO with the enhanced automation capability. We're continuing to increase our production rate of those types of systems. So we expect them to be important contributors going forward and products that are seeing good, very good demand from customers. The supply constraints is not really a huge -- not a big issue for us.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time.

Mark Meehan

Okay. Thanks. We will go ahead and end the call there. Thank you, everyone, for joining, and please reach out to us if you have any follow-up questions. Bye.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, you may now disconnect.