Inogen (NSDQ:INGN) shares took a big hit today on first-quarter results that beat the consensus forecast despite significant losses.
The in-home respiratory product developer saw its shares fall -17.5% at $43.63 per share in mid-morning trading.
The Goleta, Calif.-based company posted losses of -$1.6 million, or -7¢ per share, on sales of $83.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020, for a bottom-line slide into the red on a sales decline of 1.9%.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, losses per share were also -7¢, 3¢ ahead of Wall Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $82.3 million.
“As a global leader in portable oxygen therapy, Inogen is working hard to meet the needs of oxygen therapy patients worldwide, including those suffering from COVID-19 during this unprecedented time,” Inogen president & CEO Scott Wilkinson said in a news release. “It is our mission to improve the freedom and independence of respiratory patients, and we intend to help as many patients as possible during this difficult time.”
The company’s business-to-business sales were up 5.7%, which is believed to be a result of the COVID-19 pandemic increasing home medical equipment provider demand.
However, direct-to-consumer sales were down 8.9% after a 15% reduction in average sales representative headcount compared to the same period in 2019. Another factor is the government-mandated shelter-in-place orders potentially limiting Inogen’s target consumers.
Inogen withdrew its 2020 financial guidance because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company believes there could continue to be a decline in direct-to-consumer sales until patient mobility and consumer confidence increases, while the recently increased business-to-business demand may dwindle.
While Inogen’s shares fell, MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — was up 0.9%.
