Shares of Pacific Biosciences of California Inc. PACB,
Skyrocketed 22.3% towards a record in morning trading on Wednesday ahead of the genetic analytics company’s fourth quarter report coming out after the closing bell, following the announcement that Japan-based Softbank Group Corp. SFTBY,
9984,
invested $ 900 million in the company. The stock is now up 230.0% in the past three months and is up 1,051.7% in the past year. For comparison, the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF IBB,
is up 39.7% in the last 12 months and the S&P 500 SPX,
has gained 16.5%. The company said Softbank’s investment was in the form of convertible senior notes, maturing in February 2028 and having an initial conversion price of $ 43.50, or 10% above Tuesday’s closing price of $ 39.54. “We believe PacBio’s HiFi sequencing will be the de facto standard tool for population genomics that will fundamentally change the practice of healthcare,” said Akshay Naheta, CEO of Softbank’s SB Management. Separately, Pacific Biosciences is expected to report earnings of 43 cents a share on revenue of $ 24.05 million later in the fourth quarter, after breakeven on a share basis of revenue of $ 27.93 million , in the same period a year ago.