- HELIER, Jersey, October 13, 2019 – Shares of NovoCure Limited (NASDAQ: NVCR) gained 0.93% to $72.52. The stock grabbed the investor’s attention and traded 415.816K shares as compared to its average daily volume of 855.59K shares. The stock’s institutional ownership stands at 74.90%.
For the three months ended March 31, 2019, Novocure (NVCR) reported net revenues of $73.30M, representing 41 percent growth versus the same period in 2018. Revenue growth was primarily driven by an increase of 622 active patients in our currently active markets, representing 31 percent growth, and an increase in net revenues per active patient. The increase in net revenues per active patient was primarily driven by improving reimbursement approval rates in Germany and by growth in Austria and Japan.
For the three months ended March 31, 2019, cost of revenues was $19.80M compared to $18.20M for the same period in 2018, representing an increase of 9 percent. The increase in cost of revenues was primarily due to the cost of shipping transducer arrays to a higher volume of active patients. Gross margin was 73% for the three months ended March 31, 2019 compared to 65% for the three months ended March 31, 2018.
Research, development and clinical trials expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2019, were $17.00M compared to $11.10M for the same period in 2018, representing an increase of 53 percent. This was primarily due to an increase in clinical trial and personnel expenses for our INNOVATE-3, LUNAR, METIS and PANOVA-3 trials and an increase in costs associated with medical affairs, regulatory and engineering.
Sales and marketing expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2019, were $22.30M compared to $18.10M for the same period in 2018, representing an increase of 23 percent. This was primarily due to increased marketing expenses and increased personnel costs associated with a larger sales force globally.
General and administrative expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2019, were $20.20M compared to $17.30M for the same period in 2018, representing an increase of 17 percent. This was primarily due to an increase in personnel costs and an increase in professional services.
Personnel costs for the three months ended March 31, 2019, included $9.70M in non-cash share-based compensation expenses, comprised of $0.40M in cost of revenues; $1.20M in research, development and clinical trials; $2.00M in sales and marketing; and $6.10M in general and administrative expenses. Total non-cash share-based compensation expenses for the first quarter 2018 were $8.50M.
Net loss for the three months ended March 31, 2019, was $12.20M, or $0.13 per share, compared to net loss of $20.70M for the same period in 2018, or $0.23 per share, representing an improvement of 41 percent.
At March 31, 2019, we had $152.10M in cash and cash equivalents and $104.50M in short-term investments, for a total balance of $256.60M in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.
NVCR has a market value of $6.97B while its EPS was booked as $-0.44 in the last 12 months. The stock has 96.07M shares outstanding. In the profitability analysis, the company has gross profit margin of 71.80% while net profit margin was -13.80%. Beta value of the company was 2.34; beta is used to measure riskiness of the security. Analyst recommendation for this stock stands at 2.30.
