Earnings call transcript: MaxCyte beats Q1 2026 forecasts with strong revenue

MaxCyte, Inc. (MXCT) surprised investors by reporting better-than-expected financial results for the first quarter of 2026. The company posted an earnings per share (EPS) of -$0.04, significantly beating the forecast of -$0.08. Revenue also exceeded expectations, reaching $9.7 million against a forecast of $7.3 million, marking a 32.88% surprise. Following the announcement, MaxCyte’s stock price saw a modest rise of 0.65% during regular trading hours and a further 2.2% increase in aftermarket trading, closing at $0.835.

MaxCyte’s performance in Q1 2026 demonstrated resilience despite a challenging market environment. The company’s revenue of $9.7 million, although a 7% decline from the previous year, reflected strong growth in specific areas such as SPL program-related revenue, which increased by 61%. This growth was partly driven by milestone revenue from a clinical customer who began dosing patients in a registrational study.

The company maintains a solid balance sheet with a current ratio of 8.3 and holds more cash than debt, according to InvestingPro data. With a market capitalization of $89.77 million and trading at what InvestingPro analysis suggests is below its Fair Value, MaxCyte appears on the platform’s most undervalued stocks watchlist. Investors seeking deeper insights can access the comprehensive Pro Research Report, available for MaxCyte and 1,400+ US equities, which transforms complex Wall Street data into clear, actionable intelligence.

MaxCyte delivered an EPS of -$0.04, outperforming the forecast of -$0.08 by 50%. The revenue beat of 32.88%, with actual revenue at $9.7 million versus the expected $7.3 million, underscores the company’s ability to manage costs and drive revenue growth despite market challenges.

Following the earnings release, MaxCyte’s stock experienced a positive reaction, with a 0.65% increase during regular trading and a further 2.2% rise in aftermarket trading. The stock is trading above its 52-week low but remains below its 52-week high, indicating room for growth as the company continues to execute its strategic initiatives.

The recent uptick comes after significant volatility, with shares down 48% over the past six months. InvestingPro Tips highlight that stock price movements are quite volatile, with a beta of 1.57. For investors navigating this volatility, InvestingPro offers 6 additional exclusive tips, along with advanced screening tools and expert analysis to help make informed decisions.

MaxCyte expects gross margins to trend in the mid-70s for the remainder of 2026. The company is also focusing on expanding its commercial presence in the Asia-Pacific region and launching additional DTx activities. Full-year operating expenses are projected to be approximately $60 million, significantly lower than the $79-80 million in 2025.

MaxCyte executives highlighted the positive impact of their SPL program-related revenue and cost management strategies. The company is confident in its ability to drive further growth through strategic initiatives and market expansion.

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the company’s strategy for further reducing operating expenses and plans for expanding the SPL portfolio. Executives emphasized their focus on maintaining cost efficiency while pursuing new partnership opportunities.

Operator: Please note that today’s conference is being recorded. I will now hand the conference over to your speaker host, Eric Abdill of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Eric Abdill, Vice President, Investor Relations, MaxCyte, Inc.: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for participating in today’s conference call. Joining me on the call from MaxCyte, we have Maher Masoud, President and Chief Executive Officer, Parmeet Ahuja, Chief Financial Officer, and Sean Menarguez, Senior Director of Business Development. Earlier today, MaxCyte released financial results for the first quarter and in March 31st, 2026. A copy of the press release is available on the company’s website. Before we begin, I need to read the following statement. Statements or comments made during this call may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Any statement contained in this call that relate to expectations or predictions of future events, results, or performance are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, which are discussed in detail in our SEC filings.

Except as required by applicable law, the company has no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. With that, I will turn the call over to Maher.

Maher Masoud, President and Chief Executive Officer, MaxCyte, Inc.: Thank you, Eric. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining MaxCyte’s first quarter 2026 earnings call. I’d like to start by providing a brief overview of our financial performance in the first quarter. MaxCyte reported $9.7 million of total revenue, including $6.2 million of core revenue and $3.4 million of SPL program-related revenue, which consists of milestones and royalties. These revenue results met our expectations. As discussed on the last quarter’s call, the first half of 2026 is a difficult year-over-year comparison, given 2 factors. Discontinued SPL programs, which resulted in GTX clinical leases that did not renew, and inventory management by our largest customer.

Elevated SPL program turnover was generally a part of a broader rationalization in ex vivo cell gene therapy, which has largely normalized as we exited 2025, with SPL partners increasingly focused on their lead programs. While the cell gene therapy ecosystem remains challenged for earlier-stage clinical programs, the environment is not worsening from what was a challenging funding backdrop in 2025. Within the ex vivo market, the number of companies financed remains stable, and we continue to see pockets of capital directed towards high-quality later-stage programs, including by Lyell, Allogene, and Vittoria, building on activity from Beam, Adicet, Wugen, and Inoka last year. Against this backdrop, we are placing instruments across all stages of development lifecycle and increasing our pipeline of future SPL partners.

Given our qualified instrument funnel, easier comps, and contribution from our new GTx product, we expect core revenue growth in the second half of 2026. MaxCyte reported $3.4 million from SPL milestones and royalties in the first quarter of 2026. This included $3 million of milestones driven by a clinical customer who began dosing patients in a registrational study in the first quarter. We are encouraged by the progress of this program, as well as the 4 additional programs that are expected to enter registrational trials in the next 18 months. We also recognized $0.4 million in royalty revenue during the first quarter. Vertex reported approximately $43 million in CASGEVY revenue for the first quarter of 2026.

On their earnings call, Vertex noted that more than 500 patients have initiated the CASGEVY treatment journey, with hundreds globally having completed cell collection, highlighting strong patient flow across the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East. Patients continue to advance from referral to cell collection and ultimately infusion, reinforcing the therapy’s multi-billion-dollar commercial potential. Vertex also highlighted recent regulatory progress, including the submission of a supplemental BLA for CASGEVY in patients aged 5 to 11 with sickle cell disease or beta thalassemia. This filing has been granted a Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher by the FDA, underscoring the significance of expanding access to younger patient populations. We remain encouraged by the continued growth in patient cell collections and infusions as Vertex scales CASGEVY commercially, with Vertex noting secured reimbursements, continued ATC network expansion, and a growing number of patients progressing through each stage of the treatment journey.

We remain confident in CASGEVY’s long-term trajectory and transformative potential for patients around the globe. Following these first quarter results, we are reiterating our core revenue and SPL milestone and royalty revenue guidance for the full year 2026, which Parmeet will elaborate on. Turning to our SPL portfolio, we updated slide 3 in the SPL deck on the IR website, which now reflects 29 SPL partners. We did not see any changes in the number of SPL partners or the number of clinical programs supported since our last update in March. However, we did remove Catamaran Bio and Walking Fish Therapeutics from our list of SPL partners because both companies previously ceased operations. Among these 29 SPL partners, 30 programs are both in clinical and preclinical development, supporting diversified revenue streams across the medium and long term.

Of these, there are five clinical programs with the potential for commercial launches in 2027 and 2028, including four that could begin registrational studies over the next 18 months and one that dosed patients in a registrational study in the first quarter. These five include zugo-cel from CRISPR Therapeutics for B-cell malignancies, WU-CART-007 from Wugen for hematologic malignancies, azer-cel from Imugene for hematological diseases, and two programs from undisclosed SPL partners. Across our 12 SPL programs currently in the clinic, the total future pre-commercial loss opportunity is approximately $100 million. While any individual program carries clinical commercial risk, the multiple shots on goal we have across the same indications and across many different indications gives us a high probability of generating meaningful core revenue, regulatory milestones, and commercial royalties over time.

Speaking of MaxCyte’s leadership in the gene editing field, the first CRISPR-Cas9 approved therapy