TOP CONTRIBUTORS

Tom Park

www.zacks.com

CPHD AT A GLANCE

P/E ► -34.6   EV/EBITDA ► -72.3   ROA ► -12.9% AVG ROE ► -18.6% AVG Debt to Equity ► 0.518 AVG Current Ratio ► 1.95 AVG Interest Coverage Ratio ► -135 LOW

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cepheid is a molecular diagnostics company that develops, manufactures, and markets fully-integrated systems for genetic analysis in the clinical molecular diagnostic, industrial, and biothreat markets. These systems enable rapid, sophisticated molecular testing for organisms and genetic-based diseases by automating otherwise complex manual laboratory procedures. Molecular testing involves a number of complicated and time-intensive steps, including sample preparation, DNA amplification, and detection. Cepheid's easy-to-use systems integrate these steps and analyze complex biological samples. The company is focusing efforts on those applications where rapid molecular testing is particularly important, such as identifying infectious disease and cancer in the clinical molecular diagnostic market food, agricultural and environmental testing in the industrial market and identifying bio-terrorism agents in the biothreat market. In 2006, clinical molecular diagnostic, biothreat, and industrial markets contributed 24%, 58%, and 18% respectively to total revenue. The company's initial public offering of stock was on June 21, 2000.

The company derives revenues primarily from the sales of its two instrument platforms and associated reagents and disposables in the clinical molecular diagnostic, industrial, and biothreat markets, and to a lesser extent from contract and government sponsored research. The two principal instrument platforms are the SmartCycler and GeneXpert systems. The SmartCycler system, integrates DNA amplification and detection to allow rapid analysis of a sample. The GeneXpert system integrates automated sample preparation with the SmartCycler DNA amplification and detection technology. The GeneXpert system, a closed, self-contained, fully-integrated and automated system, represents a paradigm shift in the automation of molecular analysis, producing accurate results in a timely manner with minimal risk of contamination. The GeneXpert system can provide rapid results with superior test specificity and sensitivity over comparable systems on the market today that are integrated but have open architectures. In 2006, instrument sales, reagent/disposable sales, contract revenue, and grant/government sponsored research revenue contributed 26%, 68%, 5%, and 1% respectively to total revenue.

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