Illumina Reports Preliminary 2024 Revenue of $4.33 Billion and Highlights NovaSeq X Momentum in J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

At the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, Illumina, Inc. announced its preliminary unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024, as well as its preliminary outlook for fiscal year 2025.

Illumina's announced financial results for the fourth quarter of 2024 show,Q4 2024 Revenue: Approximately $1.1 billion, a year-over-year increase of 1%. Full-year 2024 Revenue: Approximately $4.33 billion, a year-over-year decrease of 2%.(At constant exchange rates). Non-GAAP operating margin: approximately 19.7% in Q4 2024, and approximately 21.3% for the full year. GAAP operating margin: approximately 16.7% in Q4 2024, and approximately 34.2% for the full year.

At the conference, Illumina CEO Jacob Thaysen announced that the company's NovaSeq X platform is driving "growth back," with clinical customers helping the company barely exceed fourth-quarter expectations. He also commented on matters announced earlier this week by Illumina, including a collaboration with Nvidia in data processing and artificial intelligence.

Jacob Thaysen

In the fourth quarter of 2024, Illumina deployed a total of 91 NovaSeq X instruments, bringing its active installed base to 630. Thaysen stated, "By the second half of this year,We expect NovaSeq X to account for 75% of the total high-throughput sequencing volume.", and account for 50% of the high-throughput consumables revenue." In addition, by the end of the year, the company had also deployed“More than 70 "MiSeq i100——This is a new low-throughput sequencer launched by Illumina in 2024.

In the subsequent Q&A session, Chief Financial Officer Ankur Dhingra added,The surge in NovaSeq X orders at the end of the year was driven by the needs of clinical customers."Multiple customers have purchased multiple NovaSeq X instruments, and many plan to use them for minimal residual disease (MRD) testing," Dhingra said.

Earlier this week, Illumina announced a partnership with Nvidia to port its Dragen genomic analysis software to Nvidia’s graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware to enhance data processing efficiency. The collaboration also focuses on artificial intelligence algorithms, with Illumina planning to integrate Nvidia’s foundational models into its software stack.

NVIDIA is the world's most valuable company with a market value of $3.33 trillion.

Thaysen pointed out that the volume of genomics and multi-omics data is so vast that "no one can process these data with an Excel spreadsheet." He added that Illumina's goal is to help customers easily import the data generated through its products into foundational AI models, such as virtual cell models trained on single-cell gene expression data.

"We want to give our customers the best tools," Thaysen said. "I believe that in a few years, we will all see this as the beginning of a new era."

Illumina Preliminarily Estimates Q4 2024 Revenue at Approximately $1.1 Billion, a 1% Increase Year-over-Year, Slightly Above Wall Street’s Consensus Expectation of $1.07 Billion. Full-Year Preliminary Revenue is Projected at $4.33 Billion, a 2% Decrease Year-over-Year, but Still Higher Than Wall Street’s Expected $4.32 Billion.

Dhingra pointed out that the consumables revenue in the fourth quarter was between $720 million and $730 million, a decrease from the previous quarter. However, the fourth quarter is typically weaker, especially in the United States, due to fewer working days.

Thaysen added that Illumina currently has 22,000 active installed instruments, with clinical customers accounting for 56% of its user base and research customers making up 44%. Additionally, 50% of the clinical customers come from the field of oncology.

Thaysen also highlighted several key achievements in 2024, including the acquisition of single-cell preparation company Fluent BioSciences and the release of multiple multi-omics products.

Illumina’s protein preparation product, developed in collaboration with SomaLogic (now part of Standard BioTools), will be released in the first half of 2025. The company will also launch an early access program for its Constellation Mapped Reads within the year, with full commercialization expected in 2026.

Thaysen said that products like Constellation not only eliminate the need for sequencing library preparation but also provide additional information that helps detect structural variants and haplotype phasing. He added, "We want to shift the focus of the sequencing discussion from 'cost per gigabase' to 'the lowest end-to-end cost and cost per insight.'"

Thaysen and Dhingra said that although they were "very pleased" to see a strong performance at the end of 2024, they did not expect the deployment rate of NovaSeq X to remain at the same high level in 2025.

Looking ahead to 2025, Illumina expects revenue to grow by a low single-digit percentage, with projected revenue between $4.28 billion and $4.4 billion, and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) expected to increase by approximately 10%.

When asked if he was concerned about potential cuts to funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), Thaysen said he didn't think there would be much change. "The area we're in — genomics and multi-omics — may see an increase in funding," he said, adding that his "view today is more positive than it was a few weeks ago."