THE NUMBERS:
Three-year growth: 154.3%
12-month revenue through June: $87.9 million
12-month loss through June: $4.6 million
Recent market value: $330 million
Employees: 342, 304 in OC
Company: cancer diagnostics
Bringing advanced cancer testing to small towns and suburbs is paying off for Clarient Inc.
Aliso Viejo-based Clarient comes in at No. 4 on the Business Journal’s annual list of fastest-growing public companies based here.
Clarient posted 154.3% revenue growth for the three years through June 30. The company went from $34.5 million in revenue for the 12 months through June 2007 to $87.9 million for the same period through this June.
Clarient provides cancer testing services for pathologists, oncologists and drug makers.
“We’ve delivered 20 consecutive quarters of revenue growth,” Chief Executive Ron Andrews said on Clarient’s most recent earnings call.
Clarient has grown because it “guessed right” about redoing its business five years ago to provide cancer testing for pathologists and oncologists who aren’t near major academic medical centers, according to Andrews.
In addition, that Clarient helps doctors treat cancer patients “is an incredible motivator” for workers, Andrews said.
Clarient’s base business “will continue to expand as its new sales reps add customers and the organization becomes increasingly productive,” said Matt Dolan, a senior research analyst with Newport Beach’s Roth Capital Partners LLC, in a client note.
Clarient also is expected to grow from new products, including the Insight DX Breast Cancer Profile test, which was introduced in May, Andrews said.
Insight DX and other new products “will help drive sustainable, strong growth rates,” Dolan said in the note.
Wall Street has liked what Clarient’s done. Since the start of the year, its stock has risen more than 150% with a recent market value of about $330 million.
Clarient also has seen an ongoing exit by its former majority shareholder, Pennsylvania-based investment company Safeguard Scientifics Inc.
In recent weeks, Safeguard has sold roughly 18.4 million—slightly more than 20%—of Clarient’s outstanding shares to undisclosed institutional investors and investment banks Stephens Inc., Robert W. Baird & Co., Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. and Boenning & Scattergood Inc.
Safeguard owned about 29% of Clarient as of mid-September.
In March, Oak Investment Partners of Connecticut said it was investing up to $50 million in Clarient in a two-part stock purchase. So far, Clarient’s used the proceeds to pay off about $24 million in debt, which it earlier warned it might not be able to pay off on its own.
Clarient has said that paying off debt should allow it to post a profit this year. For the 12 months through this June, the company lost $4.6 million.
For the second quarter, Clarient posted a net profit of $29,000 before a dividend payment to Oak.
Safeguard’s stake in Clarient has gone from 60% to 47%. Safeguard has said it will exit Clarient entirely by selling the 28.1 million shares and 2.75 million warrants it has left after the most recent stock sale.
Clarient was founded in 1993 and was transformed into its current form five years ago. In its past existence as ChromaVision Medical Systems Inc., the company was based in San Juan Capistrano and made laboratory instruments that doctors used to help manage breast cancer cases.
ChromaVision came close to running out of money at the end of 2003, which prompted the business shift, Andrews said.
Clarient moved to its current 78,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in Aliso Viejo in 2006. The company has 342 workers, 304 of whom are in Orange County.
