Arbutus Biopharma (ABUS) Reports Q4 Loss, Tops Revenue Estimates

Company Performance - Arbutus Biopharma reported a quarterly loss of $0.07 per share, better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of$0.08, and an improvement from a loss of $0.12 per share a year ago, indicating an earnings surprise of 12.50$1.57 million for the quarter ended December 2024, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 17.46%, although this is a decline from year-ago revenues of $2.15 million [2] - Over the last four quarters, Arbutus has surpassed consensus EPS estimates just once and topped consensus revenue estimates two times [2] Future Outlook - The sustainability of Arbutus's stock price movement will depend on management's commentary during the earnings call and the earnings outlook for the coming quarters [3][4] - The current consensus EPS estimate for the next quarter is -$0.09 on revenues of $1.36 million, and for the current fiscal year, it is -$0.34 on revenues of $5.64 million [7] - The estimate revisions trend for Arbutus is mixed, resulting in a Zacks Rank 3 (Hold), suggesting the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future [6] Industry Context - The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, to which Arbutus belongs, is currently in the top 28% of over 250 Zacks industries, indicating a favorable outlook compared to the bottom 50% [8] - Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions, which can be tracked by investors [5]