ChromaDex shares soar 68% after strong earnings report

Ingredient developer ChromaDex has reported its strongest earnings report yet, which signifies a significant milestone in the development history of its flagship ingredient Niagen.

Hank Schultz, Senior Editor

November 5, 2024

2 Min Read

At a Glance

  • ChromaDex beats analysts’ earnings estimates by 100%.
  • Market responds by sending stock price up by almost 68%.
  • Earnings report makes milestone in development history of Niagen ingredient.

Ingredient supplier ChromaDex reported a large revenue increase that sent the company’s stock price soaring in trading over the past two sessions.

ChromaDex, which supplies Niagen, a proprietary form of nicotinamide riboside, reported third-quarter earnings on Thursday. The company brought in $25.6 million in the quarter, which represents a 31% year-over-year increase.

The company reported earnings of 2 cents a share. While modest, those earnings beat analysts’ estimates by 100%. Earnings of 1 cent a share had been forecast.

The market responded enthusiastically to the news, sending the stock price up nearly 68% in trading on Friday. The stock held on to most of those gains since then. The stock is trading at $5.97 today, while the share price opened on Friday at $2.37.

Long road for Niagen

ChromaDex has marketed Niagen, which is a form of vitamin B3, via a consumer brand under the name Tru Niagen. Sales of the direct-to-consumer brand accounted for $18.1 million in the quarter. The company also sells the ingredient directly to formulation partners.

The company has also been begun marketing a “pharmaceutical grade” of the ingredient, collectively branded as Niagen +, which also includes forms administered by injection under a prescription.

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“We are proud to report our best quarter to date, achieving $25.6 million in revenue, an impressive 31% increase year over year, supported by a strong gross margin of 63.5%, record-setting net income of $1.9 million, and healthy cash flows that have grown our operating cash to $32.4 million,” said ChromaDex CEO Rob Fried.

The positive earnings mark a milestone for the company, which has followed a long and sometimes winding road to this point.

ChromaDex started as an analytical chemistry company and that is still part of its business.  Along the way the company also started to license IP for ingredient development, which is how Niagen came into the fold. The original patents were held by Dartmouth University.

Niagen hits Elysium snag

The Niagen development story hit a significant snag when ChromaDex got into a protracted legal battle with its erstwhile customer Elysium Health, an anti-aging supplement company founded in 2014 by MIT professor Leonard Guarente, Ph.D., with other partners. 

A jury determined in 2021 that ChromaDex had overcharged Elysium for the Niagen and pterostilbene ingredients used in Elysium’s anti-aging supplement Basis. ChromaDex recovered some of the money and interest it alleged it was owed but fell short on some of its other claims.  The company did not appeal the verdict.

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About the Author

Hank Schultz

Senior Editor, Informa

Hank Schultz has been the senior editor of SupplySide Supplement Journal (formerly Natural Products Insider) since early 2023. He can be reached at [email protected]

Prior to joining the Informa team, he was an editor at NutraIngredients-USA, a William Reed Business Media publication.

His approach to industry journalism was formed via a long career in the daily newspaper field. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with degrees in journalism and German, Hank was an editor at the Tempe Daily News in Arizona. He followed that with a long stint working at the Rocky Mountain News, a now defunct daily newspaper in Denver, where he rose to be one of the city editors. The newspaper won two Pulitzer Prizes during his time there.

The changing landscape of the newspaper industry led him to explore other career paths. He began his career in the natural products industry more than a decade ago at New Hope Natural Media, which was then part of Penton and now is an Informa brand. Hank formed friendships and partnerships within the industry that still inform his work to this day, which helps him to bring an insider’s perspective, tempered with an objective journalist’s sensibility, to his in-depth reporting.

Harkening back to his newspaper days, Hank considers the readers to be the primary stakeholders whose needs must be met. Report the news quickly, comprehensively and above all, fairly, and readership and sponsorships will follow.

In 2015, Hank was recognized by the American Herbal Products Association with a Special Award for Journalistic Excellence.

When he’s not reporting on the supplement industry, Hank enjoys many outside pursuits. Those include long distance bicycle touring, mountain climbing, sailing, kayaking and fishing. Less strenuous pastimes include travel, reading (novels and nonfiction), studying German, noodling on a harmonica, sketching and a daily dose of word puzzles in The New York Times.

Last but far from least, Hank is a lifelong fan and part owner of the Green Bay Packers.

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