Why Apellis Pharmaceuticals Stock Was Tumbling on Tuesday

Tuesday's big news with Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: APLS) wasn't all that favorable to the company. It released its third-quarter results, and the market wasn't all that pleased with the figures.

In late-session trading, investors were selling out of Apellis, to the point where its price was down by nearly 6%. By contrast, the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index was comfortably in positive territory, with a more than 1% gain at that stage.

Not enough growth for the market

Apellis unveiled those results before market hours on Tuesday, disclosing that its revenue for the quarter was just under $197 million. That was well above the more than $110 million in the same period of 2023. The company also managed to narrow its generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) net loss considerably, to $57 million ($0.46 per share) from the year-ago $140 million deficit.

Despite those improvements, Apellis missed analyst expectations on both the top and bottom lines. On average, prognosticators following the stock were expecting slightly over $200 million in revenue, and only a $0.29-per-share net loss.

Much of the growth came from Syfovre, the first Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment for eye disorder geographic atrophy (GA). Sales of the drug more than doubled in the third quarter. Syfovre's brief position as the only GA treatment on the U.S. market didn't last long, however, as the FDA subsequently approved Izervay from rival Astellas Pharma.

Syfovre sales fell short of projections

In the face of this competition, management admitted that Syfovre sales didn't meet its expectations -- hardly a vote of confidence in its No. 1 drug going forward. Since Apellis is so dependent on the trajectory of Syfovre, it's little wonder that investors are cold on the stock.

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Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.