San Diego, CA 10/10/16; Washington, DC 10/10/16—Illumina, a provider of DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, has announced that preliminary revenues for the third quarter increased 10% to $607 million, compared to guidance of $625–$630 million. “The primary driver of this miss was high-throughput instrument sales compared to our expectations,” stated Illumina President and CEO Francis deSouza on a conference call discussing the results. “HiSeq 2500 and 4000 orders in the Americas were lower than expected and we closed one less HiSeq X system deal than anticipated, resulting in a shipment figure of 26 X units during the quarter. As a result, total sequencing instrument revenue declined 26% year-over-year, a larger decrease than that anticipated at the beginning of Q3.” Sequencing consumables orders were consistent with expectations. The company anticipates fourth quarter revenues to be flat to slightly higher sequentially.

Illumina, which has missed its revenue projections three of the last five quarters, is clearly facing slower growth prospects in the research instrumentation market. Sequencing instrument sales contracted 26% in the third quarter and have declined sequentially over the last six quarters. The company’s projection of  fourth quarter sales would represent year-over-year growth of roughly 3%, a significant fall from previous expectations of 16%.