Thank you for standing by. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Cytek Biosciences' Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the conference over to Paul Goodson, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, earlier today, Cytek Biosciences released financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2024. 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 email to investors@cytekbio.com. Joining me today from Cytek are Wenbin Jiang CEO and CFO Bill McCombe. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that management 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. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties appears in the section entitled Forward-Looking Statements in this press release Cytek issued today and in Cytek's filings with the SEC. This call will include a discussion of certain financial measures that are not calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure may be found in today's earnings release submitted to the SEC. Except as required by law, Cytek disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or changes in its expectation. This conference call contains time sensitive information and is accurate only as of the live broadcast November 5, 2024. Finally, I would like to announce that Cytek is hosting a full day user group meeting in Boston on December 5th. The meeting will feature presentations by users of our technology and Cytek scientists to share their research experience and ideas for how best to use Cytek's products. We have a limited amount of space for analysts and investors, so please let me know as soon as possible if you would like to attend. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Wenbin.

Thanks Paul. Welcome everyone and thank you for your interest in Cytek. On today's call, I will provide an overview of our performance in the third quarter and the progress achieved on our strategic initiatives to drive sustainable growth and profitability. Then I will turn the call over to Bill for a more detailed look at our financials before we open it up for Q&A. Starting with our third quarter results, we delivered solid growth with 7% year-over-year growth and the total revenue reaching $51.5 million. Our growth this quarter was driven primarily by strong double-digit year-over-year total revenue growth across EMEA and APAC and from our service revenue globally. We were pleased to see continued growth despite the ongoing soft market conditions. Fundamentally, this is because we are a technology leader in in a core instrument category that many labs consider essential as compared to more discretionary technologies. We believe our instruments offer higher multiplication, data quality, sensitivity and ease of use. These capabilities serve the basis for our strong reputation and loyal customer base. Geographically, we continued to see positive momentum in EMEA and APAC and a return toward the more normal spending patterns in the US. While market conditions for instruments in the US continued to be softer than last year, we were encouraged to see sequential quarterly improvement for Cytek products across our customers in particular with the biopharma sector. We experienced strong demand from our global pharma and CRO customers who are increasingly focused on harmonizing their instruments across different regions for translational discovery work which our technology is uniquely capable of delivering. Additionally, we posted another quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA, a cornerstone of our path to deliver sustainable profitability. This was driven by our disciplined focus on expense management combined with our revenue…

Thanks, Wenbin. Total revenue for the third quarter was $51.5 million, an increase of 10% versus the second quarter and 7% versus Q3 of last year. This revenue result reflected a significant recovery in product revenue versus Q2 and robust growth in international markets and in service revenue versus Q3 of last year. Product revenue, which is primarily instruments, increased 14% versus Q2 and 3% versus Q3 of last year. The increase versus Q2 was driven by a recovery in the US market, particularly in the biopharma sector, and continued growth in international markets. The increase versus Q3 of last year was driven primarily by growth in international markets. Service revenue grew 25% versus Q3 of last year. This service revenue growth reflects continued expansion of the install base of our instruments and active usage of our tools across a broad range of disciplines. Turning to geographic market performance, total US revenue increased 9% versus Q2 but declined 9% from a strong Q3 of last year. International markets grew strongly with EMEA up 25% versus Q2 and 33% versus prior year. Asia Pacific was flat versus Q2 but up 32% versus prior year. This growth in international markets reflects the fact that Cytek Technology is the market leading full spectral flow cytometry technology of choice for research institutions and biopharma companies worldwide. GAAP gross profit was $29 million for the third quarter, an increase of 14% versus the second quarter and an increase of 7% versus Q3 of last year. GAAP gross profit margin improved slightly to 56% in the quarter, up from 55% in Q2 due to improved overhead productivity on higher revenues. Compared to a year ago GAAP gross profit margin was down 1% from 57% due to higher product material costs. Adjusted gross profit margin, which excludes…

Thanks Bill. Our financial strength and our shared belief in our mission position Cytek well to successfully navigate through today's macro environment while strengthening our foundation for the future. We have a clear roadmap ahead to deliver long term sustainable growth and profitability and I'm proud of our team's achievements this quarter. It is their dedication and commitment that drives our progress forward. I want to thank everyone for joining today's call and we will now open it up for questions. Operator.

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from the line of Tejas Savant with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Good evening and thanks for the time here. Wenbin, maybe just to kick things off, I think you called out a more normalized demand environment in the US and maybe even a little bit of sequential improvement in Pharma. And I think you also made a comment in your prepared remarks about how the flow cytometry for market is more sort of essential versus discretionary spend for your customers. Can you just elaborate on that a little bit? Why is what you're seeing quite different from what some of the other life science instrument vendors are seeing at the moment, including folks in sequencing, spatial biology, et cetera and in the US any comment on academic and government? I think that end market was a little bit soft in the second quarter for you. Has that gotten better as well?

Yes indeed. We have seen some improvement on the academic side as well in Q3 versus Q2 overall in North America. The strength come from the biopharma as what we have indicated. Now while we are different from others as we have indicated, flow cytometry is a basic life science tool used in almost all biology labs, life science labs, and so supporting their daily needs which is different from many other technologies which is discretional. And we feel this probably has played some role with regarding to differentiating Cytek from some of our peers.

Got it. Fair enough. And then one for you Bill. I mean obviously the Guide has a $13 million or so sequential step up in the fourth quarter at the midpoint. So, a lot of your life science peers have actually pulled out any budget flush benefit just given the softer than expected environment and so on. Can you just help us think through your underlying assumptions there around the budget flush or is it sort of what Wenbin just alluded to in terms of essential versus discretionary spend that underpins your confidence that the step up will come through here in the fourth quarter?

Look customarily. Hi Tejas. Customarily we see a step up in the fourth quarter and if you look at the fourth quarter as a percent of total revenue in prior years, it's about 30%. So we are assuming a normal seasonal pattern here and I think partly underlying that is the theme that Wenbin discussed, that our instruments are viewed as more of an essential instrument by many of our customers as opposed to discretionary. So, you know, we feel that a normal seasonal patent is appropriate.

Got it. Okay. And then last one for me, any guardrails on '25 you'd be willing to share? You know I think the street has you doing about mid-teens growth while also expanding your EBITDA margins versus this year's level. Is that a fair framework to use or would you rather folks think of you know, high single digit growth, perhaps like 10% or so just in light of the moving pieces here, including at what point does China recover, whether the pharma sort of end market continues to improve quarter-over-quarter, et cetera. There's a bunch of moving pieces here. So just curious as to any preliminary color you guys would be willing to share on '25.

Do you want me to take that, Wenbin? Yeah, so look, we don't want to give revenue guidance for 2025 at this point would be premature. We'll do that on our next call. With respect to profitability, the only thing I would note is that if you look at year-to-date EBITDA, we're up significantly versus last year, we're at about just $9.9 million year-to-date EBITDA versus I think $2.7 last year. That's on an adjusted basis. So, our business model is to grow the top line to control. To maintain gross margins and to control operating expenses and have them grow more slowly than the top line. So, the, the implication of that is that we would expect to grow EBITDA as we go forward. So that's about as much as I can say with respect to 2025.

Understood. Thanks for the time, guys. Appreciate it.

Next question comes from the line of Brendan Smith with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

Hi, guys. Thanks so much for taking the questions. Congrats on the quarter. Maybe looking ahead, a little bit to this December event and honestly into 2025, I'm just wondering maybe what we might expect at that event in terms of pipeline or financial updates? Really kind of the overview of what you're going to have there and then maybe heading into 2025, if there's any important new products or product updates on the horizon that you guys think would be especially relevant. Just the top line growth moving forward. Thanks very much.

Let me just comment on the first part of the question. At the fourth quarter earnings call our first quarter of each year is when we customarily provide our guidance for the year and we would expect to do same thing next year, give guidance on similar items. So, nothing. You know, I don't have an expectation at this point that we'd be doing anything significantly different than our normal pattern. And with respect to new products, I'll ask Wenbin to say what we can about that.

Yeah. And as you can see, we invest substantially in R&D and naturally, and just like what we have launched this year, and you will continue to see new products being launched over the course of the year. And so that will reflect how we invest and serve for our shareholders.

All right, great. Thank you.

Next question comes from the line of Mason Carrico with Stephens. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. Thanks for the questions here. You called out strength in APAC. I wanted to dig in a little bit there and ask if you'd be willing to provide any incremental detail on what countries are really driving the strength there? Are you seeing demand trends in China improve? Any additional color there would just be appreciated.

Our APAC business includes revenues from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and as well as China. So, this strength reflects the total effect in that area in that continent. So, with regarding to China and I think you have seen a lot of report from other companies and indeed we have seen similar impact. Of course, not as severe as what the other companies have been reporting, but overall, clearly and we have seen some impact, but we also expect they may return to normal sometime next year and we look forward to that.

Got it. And then as we do think about the fourth quarter here, how much of that sequential increase is really being driven by assumptions around quarter-over-quarter growth in the US. Just really any incremental detail you can give on the assumptions for the Q4 ramp sequentially from a geographic standpoint would be great.

I think we have strong momentum as Wenbin mentioned in EMEA and in Asia Pacific, particularly in the Asia Pacific countries other than China. So, Australia, New Zealand and so on. With respect to the fourth quarter, we would continue to expect good momentum in Asia PAC and in Europe we expect some recovery in the US although the US market is softer and therefore that would probably be the lowest growth of any of the three major regions. The service business, we would expect that to continue to grow driven by the growth in the installed base. So that's about as much color as we could give.

Got it. Thank you.

Next question comes from David Westenberg. Your line is open.

Hi, thank you for taking the question. This is John Barnidge. I was wondering if you could just give any color on what you're thinking that the longer-term growth rates for your business are going to be looking like? Because they have been this year a bit below the sort of 20% to 30% growth rates that we saw historically. So, if you could give any thoughts on what could bring you back potentially up to those levels in the future. What might be some puts and takes on those that'd be appreciated. Thank you.

Overall, we know life science industry has been challenged and, in some area, you can see the negative growth. What we are striving for is to continue to maintain our growth above the market.

Okay, great. Thank you. And can you just give any thoughts on how you're tracking CapEx spending and what you would be looking for that would give you additional optimism about that going forward?

And if you look at our business today and probably about, yeah, right now is about 30% in the current including service and reagents and 70% on capital instrument long-term and we are going to continue to invest on reagents applications to continue to grow our recurring revenue based on our solid in store base. So, we feel good about our long-term growth.

Okay, thank you.

Next question comes from the line of Andrew Cooper with Raymond James. Your line is open.

Hey everybody, thanks for the questions. Maybe just first thinking about some of the commentary around China, seemingly not as big of a headwind for you as some of the others. Should we expect that you get a similarly sized tailwind from some of the stimulus program in that region or overall maybe a little bit smoother. So not as low of a low and not as high of a high. Just would love kind of how you think about the trajectory there as some of those funds start to kick out to potential customers.

I think we are going to benefit clearly when China start to invest buying new instrument, advanced technology clearly is on top of their mind and Cytek technology has been very well established right now in China and we feel strongly and as the program kicks off and funding start to go to our user base and we will see the great benefits from those new funds available to them.

Okay, that's helpful. And then just kind of one more crack at the 4Q step up. Can you give us a sense for the visibility you have as you sit today and look at kind of what's already been delivered, what the order book looks like relative to hitting say the midpoint of the guide? What do you need to go close through the last two months of the quarter versus what's already sort of in hand or at least in a booking.

We are a third month company so most of our order coming during the last few weeks and therefore even though we are now at the early November and we expect actually with regarding to the full quarter and we continue to rely upon pretty much last few weeks, last six, seven weeks and so it's too early for us to comment on this.

Okay, I'll just sneak one more in if I can but would love a little bit more granular of an update on sort of the clinical pathway in the US. you know what progress you've made in terms of that process and maybe what are the biggest gating factors to getting into that clinical market here in the States.

I think there are two parts regarding to clinical. One is the 510(k) process which is one of the parts we are working on. The second part is the LDT and applications which we have been working with quite a few reputable labs in the US and we feel good about the progress we are making right now.

Great, appreciate the time.

[Operator Instructions] And we have another question. Comes from the line of Matt Sykes with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Hi, this is Evian for Matt. Thanks for taking my questions. So, within services you had solid growth there. How are attachment rates trending? And then can you talk through some of the low hanging fruit to get that attachment rate even higher? So, you're mostly going after current instrument users that don't have service contracts or you're going after more like new customers buying instruments.

Service revenue is related to the installed base, right? And also relates to how frequently the instruments are being used and so on. That regards of course. And that also is related to how many users will buy service contracts. Basically, it's insurance. And I think over the last few years you can see clearly our service revenue has been growing quite nicely. And that reflects first year's how actually the rapid increase of our installer base. Second part is how frequently our instruments are being used regarding to those customers. So of course, long-term and you cannot continue to expect to see 30%, 40% kind of growth rate we have enjoyed, but overall that's going to continue to track the growth of our installed base.

Okay, great, thank you. And then in terms of thinking about how customers have delayed replacements due to CapEx constraints in the weaker funding environment, how do you think about the age of instruments and how that's trended within both your current install base and then those of competitors whose instruments you might be replacing and just trying to get a sense for when you think the replacement cycle might start to kick in.

This is a little bit complicated question. The reason is under current market, relatively speaking, it's more difficult for customers to get funding to buy new instruments. So clearly, we have seen they would like to extend the life of the instruments they have. But on the other hand, we do see new programs kicking in. They really would like to drive to the advanced research and working with advanced technology. This is where we excel and we have benefited from our customers moving toward new technology, toward high parameter cell analysis. Also, another advantage we have seen is more and more customers, pharma, biotech, they are trying to harmonize their instrument technology across many of their labs globally. And this is where we excel. Our technology clearly has been there to serve for the needs of our customers on standardization, on harmonization.

Super helpful, thank you.

There are no further questions at this time. And this does conclude the meeting. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.