Polynovo Ltd (ASX: PNV) shares are swinging around today after the company released its earnings report for the first half of the 2021 financial year (1H21) before market open this morning. At the time of writing, the Polynovo share price has risen 0.83% to $2.43 after climbing as high as $2.47 earlier in the day.
What did Polynovo report this morning?
Polynovo is an ASX health care company that specialises in treatments for burn injuries and other skin maladies.
The Polynovo share price is staying afloat today after the biotech reported that revenues for 1H21 came in at $12.8 million, up 25.3% over the $10.2 million from the prior corresponding period (1H20). Gross margins for product sales rose 3.9% as well.
However, that was offset by expenses increasing 32.6% from $11.2 million in 1H20 to $13 million in 1H21. A large component of this increase came from increased staff headcount.
That rise in expenses helped push earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to a loss of $2.9 million, up 46.2% from the previous loss of $1 million. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) losses also rose 41%, going from a loss of $2.4 million in 1H20 to a loss of $3.3 million in 1H21.
That resulted in Polynovo delivering a net profit after tax loss of $3.54 million, up 46.3% from the $2.42 million loss of 1H20.
Overall, the company posted an underlying loss of $0.87 million for 1H21, down 40.2% from its loss of $1.45 million in 1H20. No dividend was announced, in case you were wondering.
Polynovo has blamed the coronavirus pandemic on "lumpy" revenues for the period, citing "reduced access and reduced elective surgery in all regions".
Even so, the company has pointed to a 31.2% rise in sales of its flagship NovoSorb product as a bright spot over the period. It also highlighted the fact it managed to sign 22 additional customers in the United States, which brings the total new accounts opened for the 2020 calendar year to 109. That's an 89% rise over the 2019 calendar year.
About the Polynovo share price
Although the Polynovo share price is having a decent day today, the company has had a rough start to the year. Polynovo shares remain down 37.15% year to date, and down more than 14% over the past 12 months. In saying that, Polynovo shares are still up more than 1,170% since August 2017.
On the current Poynovo share price, the company has a market capitalisation of around $1.61 billion.
