Key insights
- Pulse Biosciences reported a Q1 2026 EPS beat, surpassing forecasts by 10%. However, the stock price declined sharply in pre-market and aftermarket trading due to investor concerns about widening net losses and increased operating expenses related to clinical and market development investments. Future EPS forecasts remain negative, reflecting ongoing profitability challenges.
Pulse Biosciences Inc. reported its Q1 2026 financial results, with an earnings per share (EPS) of -$0.27, surpassing the forecasted -$0.30 by 10%. The company met its revenue forecast with $400,000 in revenue. Despite this positive earnings surprise, the company’s stock fell by 10.47% in pre-market trading to $18.65 and further declined by 6.35% in aftermarket trading to $17.99. This drop reflects investor concerns over the company’s financial health and rising expenses.
Pulse Biosciences’ performance in Q1 2026 shows a mixed picture. While the company managed to beat EPS expectations, the net loss widened to $18.6 million from $16.8 million in Q1 2025. The increase in operating expenses, driven by investments in clinical and market development, reflects the company’s commitment to growth but raises concerns about its path to profitability.
Pulse Biosciences’ EPS of -$0.27 beat the forecasted -$0.30 by 10%. The revenue of $400,000 met expectations, resulting in no revenue surprise. The EPS beat indicates better-than-expected cost management, though it does not significantly alter the company’s loss trajectory.
Despite the EPS beat, Pulse Biosciences’ stock experienced a sharp decline, falling 10.47% in pre-market trading and an additional 6.35% in aftermarket trading. The stock movement suggests investor concerns about the company’s ongoing losses and increased expenses.
The company projects continued investments in its clinical programs and product development, with cash reserves expected to support these initiatives through major inflection points in 2026. Future EPS forecasts show continued negative earnings, reflecting ongoing challenges in achieving profitability.
"The deliberate increase in our operating expenses reflects our commitment to advancing clinical programs and expanding our market presence," said Dr. David Kenigsberg, Chief Medical Officer. "We remain focused on long-term value creation and leveraging our innovative nsPFA technology."
During the earnings call, analysts questioned the company’s path to profitability and the expected timeline for achieving positive cash flow. Executives highlighted ongoing investments in clinical trials and product development as critical to future growth but acknowledged the challenges in balancing expenses with revenue growth.
Mel, Conference Operator: Hello, thank you for standing by. My name is Mel, I will be your conference operator for today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Pulse Biosciences Quarter 1 2026 earnings 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. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Tripp Taylor of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Tripp Taylor, Investor Relations, Pulse Biosciences: Thank you, operator. Before we begin, I’d like to inform you that comments and responses to your questions during today’s call reflect management’s views as of today, May 7, 2026 only and will include forward-looking statements and opinion statements, including predictions, estimates, plans, expectations, and other similar information. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied as a result of certain risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties are more fully described in our press release issued on Monday and in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Our SEC filings can be found on our website or on the SEC’s website. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We disclaim any obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements. We’ll also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures.
Disclosures regarding these non-GAAP financial measures, including reconciliations with the most comparable GAAP measures, can be found in the press release. Please note that this conference call will be available for audio replay on our website at pulsebiosciences.com in the News and Events section on our Investor Relations page. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Co-Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Paul LaViolette.
Paul LaViolette, Co-Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Pulse Biosciences: Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. For those of you that are new to the Pulse Biosciences story, let me start with a brief overview of the technology at the core of everything we do. Pulse Biosciences is the pioneer of nanosecond pulsed field ablation, or nsPFA, a fundamentally new category of energy that we believe will change the way soft tissues in the human body are treated across multiple disease states. Conventional ablation modalities, whether radiofrequency, cryoablation, microwave, or even today’s first generation microsecond pulsed field systems, share common limitations. They rely on relatively long-duration energy delivery windows. They deliver current or temperature changes through tissue inefficiently. They cover small treatment areas, create shallow lesions, and often require repeated applications. Our nsPFA platform creates an entirely different and proprietary approach and experience. We deliver pulses measured in billionths of a second.
At that time scale, with each pulse, the duration of a few billionths of a second, the energy interacts with cells through a non-thermal mechanism that initiates regulated cell death in target tissue while leaving collagen, blood vessels, nerves, and other non-cellular structures intact. The practical effect of nsPFA delivery is meaningful. nsPFA creates deeper and more durable lesions delivered in dramatically less time while providing a margin of safety that has been a core challenge for legacy energy sources. Surrounding this core technology, we have built a substantial and growing intellectual property estate that positions Pulse Biosciences as the clear first mover and the long-term leader in nanosecond PFA. We are developing this platform to treat atrial fibrillation, where the unmet need is enormous and where our differentiation seems to be pronounced. We are advancing additional applications that leverage these remarkable underlying therapeutic advantages of nsPFA energy.
Against this backdrop, the first quarter of 2026 produced a true inflection point for Pulse Biosciences. 3 milestones defined the quarter and recent progress produced by our team. First, we presented landmark late-breaking data from our large European feasibility study at the AF Symposium, which set a new bar for what physicians and patients should expect from a pulsed field ablation therapy. Second, leveraging this unprecedented clinical data set, we made the decision to strategically reshape Pulse Biosciences to focus on our highest value opportunity, our nPulse cardiac catheter for atrial fibrillation, have rapidly reorganized our focus and operations to allocate an increased portion of our overall company resources to this program. Third, in just the past several weeks, we commenced enrollment in our IDE U.S. pivotal study, NANOPULSE-AF, treating our first patients with the nsPFA catheter system in early April.
We also released updated follow-up data from the European feasibility study, further validating strong positive outcomes. Each one of these milestones represents a meaningful achievement. Together, they reflect a clinical development program of great importance moving at impressive speed. Today, I will provide updates on our nsPFA system in more detail, and will then turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Jon Skinner, to review the first quarter financial results. We will then conclude with a question-and-answer session joined by Bob Duggan, Co-Chairman of the Board, and Liane Teplitsky, Chief Operating Officer. I will now begin with our nPulse cardiac catheter system for AF ablation. Our nPulse cardiac catheter system is purpose-built to address atrial fibrillation with a 360 degrees circular design.
The clinical goal of ablation in the treatment of paroxysmal AF is straightforward: electrically isolate the pulmonary veins from the left atrium to prevent abnormal electrical signals from triggering arrhythmias. Achieving that goal durably, efficiently, and safely has been the ongoing challenge in the field, and the ability to advance improvements in AF care will set our catheter apart from existing technology in this rapidly growing market. The nPulse nsPFA system represents what we believe is the world’s first true single-shot pulmonary vein ablation treatment platform for AF. Early data suggest a physician can now rapidly position the circular catheter, deliver a single 5-second application of nanosecond pulse energy per target location, and achieve a complete circumferential and transmural ablation without repositioning, without rotating, and without the need to stack multiple overlapping lesions.
That workflow advantage stems directly from the underlying ultra-short duration and high-energy pulse parameters unique to nsPFA energy and Pulse’s unique catheter design, which is possible in part because of the unique properties of the energy. Because the energy is delivered in billionths of a second, the total cumulative energy transferred to tissue is dramatically lower, which means no measurable temperature rise and minimal neuromuscular stimulation. The result is a system designed for speed, reproducibility, and durability, qualities that make the procedure more streamlined and efficient for operators as we redefine the standard of care in electrophysiology. Since our last call, we announced a meaningful strategic alignment to prioritize and accelerate the development and future commercialization of our nPulse cardiac catheter ablation system.