Vericel Raises Revenue Guidance Again, Adds First Buyback
Vericel swung to a $2.2 million profit and lifted its full-year revenue outlook to $330-$340 million even as quarterly growth cooled to 22%.
Vericel (VCEL) reported second-quarter revenue of $77.5 million, up 22% from a year earlier, and turned a profit of $2.2 million, or $0.04 a share, compared with a net loss of $0.6 million in the same period last year. The maker of cell therapies for cartilage repair and severe burns also disclosed its first-ever share buyback, a $200 million authorization approved by the board alongside the results.
The quarter marked a step down in growth from the pace Vericel posted earlier in the year. Revenue rose 30% in the first quarter and 23% in the fourth quarter of 2024, making the second quarter's 22% gain the softest of the last three periods. The deceleration traced largely to Burn Care, where revenue growth fell to 22% from 91% in the prior quarter, as comparisons against a year-ago quarter that included a 119% surge in Epicel sales came due. Epicel itself grew 21% year-over-year in the quarter, to $10.4 million, down from 119% growth in the first quarter.
MACI, the company's core cartilage-repair product, held its trajectory. The therapy grew 23% year-over-year, its fifth straight quarter of 20%-plus growth, with the trailing four-quarter growth rate steady at 23%. NexoBrid, the smaller burn-debridement product, set a revenue record of $1.5 million, up 36% sequentially and 33% from a year earlier, extending a pattern of uneven but generally rising quarters since its own record in the third quarter of 2024.
Gross margin was roughly flat year-over-year at 73%, versus 74% in the second quarter of 2024, but slipped from the 79% record set in the fourth quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA margin compressed to 19% from 21% a year earlier even as EBITDA dollars rose to $14.9 million from $13.4 million, a gap that reflected operating expenses climbing to $56.0 million from $48.6 million as Vericel expanded its MACI sales force and marketing programs. Sequentially, the company's net loss of $6.3 million in the first quarter gave way to the second quarter's profit, aided by lighter opex growth than the prior period.
Vericel raised its full-year 2025 revenue guidance to a range of $330 million to $340 million, up from $326 million to $336 million, the second consecutive quarterly increase of roughly $10 million. MACI guidance moved to $284 million to $290 million from $282 million to $288 million, and Burn Care guidance rose to $46 million to $50 million from $44 million to $48 million, itself an increase from the $36 million to $40 million range given at the start of the year.
The company left its profitability targets unchanged, reaffirming adjusted EBITDA margin guidance of approximately 27% for the full year for a third consecutive quarter and holding gross margin guidance at about 75%. Vericel also disclosed it had submitted a marketing authorization application for MACI to the U.K.'s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, advancing beyond the prior quarters' language that the filing remained on track.
With full-year revenue and segment guidance both raised for a second straight quarter and margin targets held steady, Vericel is betting that MACI's sustained growth can offset the base-effect slowdown in Burn Care as it begins returning capital to shareholders for the first time.