AbCellera joins the tracked set today, three weeks after it reported the June quarter on 5 August. Its Rule of 40 card shows n/m — not meaningful — and that is the most useful thing the card can say about this company right now.
The June quarter did $4.05 million of revenue and produced +$23.8 million of free cash flow. That is a free-cash-flow margin of +587.4%, against revenue growth of -76.3%. Add them and the score is 511, which would put AbCellera at the top of every board on this site, above NVIDIA and everything else. The site suppresses any quarter whose margin exceeds 500% in absolute terms, for exactly this reason.
It is not one odd quarter
| Quarter | Revenue | YoY | FCF | FCF margin | R40 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Q3 | $6.5M | -1.4% | -$47.4M | -728.4% | n/m |
| 2024 Q4 | $5.0M | -45.0% | -$23.6M | -467.9% | -512.9 |
| 2025 Q1 | $4.2M | -57.5% | -$22.2M | -524.0% | n/m |
| 2025 Q2 | $17.1M | +133.3% | -$45.8M | -267.9% | -134.6 |
| 2025 Q3 | $9.0M | +37.6% | -$61.5M | -687.0% | n/m |
| 2025 Q4 | $44.9M | +788.2% | -$44.6M | -99.4% | n/m |
| 2026 Q1 | $8.3M | +96.3% | -$37.4M | -449.2% | -352.9 |
| 2026 Q2 | $4.1M | -76.3% | +$23.8M | +587.4% | n/m |
Three of eight quarters produce a number, and the three that do are -512.9, -134.6 and -352.9. The growth column swings from -76.3% to +788.2%. The margin column swings 1,315 points. Nothing in either column describes an operating trend, because the denominator — quarterly revenue — is smaller than a single partnership payment and smaller than a quarter's ordinary working-capital movement.
Even on a trailing-four-quarter basis, where the timing noise is supposed to wash out, the score is -79.5: $66.2 million of revenue growing 101.3% against a -180.8% free-cash-flow margin. Both halves of that are artifacts. The 101.3% is one $44.9 million quarter driven by a licensing and royalty line that was $1.0 million in all of 2024 and $46.9 million in 2025. The -180.8% is a company spending $187 million a year on R&D against a revenue line the company is deliberately shrinking.
The shrinking is on purpose
That last point is the one that makes AbCellera worth tracking rather than dismissing. Carl Hansen has said in public that the partnership business was ramped down starting in 2023 to fund an owned pipeline. The business metric in the Q2 release tracks it: partner-led programs where AbCellera holds a downstream stake fell from 44 at 31 December 2025 to 35 at 30 June 2026. Revenue falling is the plan working, not the plan failing.
What replaces it is not revenue yet. On 10 August the Phase 2 portion of the ABCL635 trial met both primary endpoints — an NK3R antagonist antibody for menopausal hot flashes, one subcutaneous dose, cutting moderate-to-severe events 83% against 33% for placebo across 92 women, with no serious adverse events. The stock went from $6.93 to $9.34 that session on 46 million shares.
Then the equity came out
Three days later, on 13 August, AbCellera priced 17,435,897 common shares plus pre-funded warrants for 3,076,926 more at $9.75, raising $200 million gross and about $188 million net. Counting the warrants that is roughly 6.7% of the share count, sold at a 5.9% discount to the 12 August close of $10.36, into the strength the data created. It sits on top of $540.1 million of cash and marketable securities at 30 June and $110 million of available non-dilutive government funding.
Four insiders then bought stock on the open market: director Michael Hayden 46,387 shares at $10.37 on 12 August and 53,613 at $10.64 on 24 August, CFO Andrew Booth 37,200 at $10.32 on 14 August, and director John Montalbano 10,000 at $11.03 on 18 August — 147,200 shares for $1.55 million in total. Two caveats belong next to that figure. Hayden's 100,000 shares are held by Genworks 2 Consulting, an entity where his spouse holds sole voting and investment power and which he disclaims beneficial ownership of; the same entity gave away 50,000 shares to charity on 11 August, so its net position rose by 50,000, not 100,000. And $1.55 million of buying is 0.8% of the $200 million the company itself sold in the same fortnight.
The unambiguous part is the $494,000 of direct purchases by Booth and Montalbano, made at $10.32 and $11.03 — above the $9.75 the company had just accepted from institutions.
What the next print has to show
- Whether the free cash flow stays positive. The June quarter's +$23.8 million is $44.1 million of deferred revenue from the Jazz upfront landing in one quarter. Jazz paid $84 million and Vertex $28 million; once those are through the balance sheet the burn resumes.
- Capital expenditure. It has fallen from $24.1 million in 2024 Q1 to $2.1 million in 2026 Q2 — the 130,000-square-foot manufacturing plant is built. That is a real and permanent change to the cash line, unlike the deferred-revenue swing.
- Whether ABCL635 moves to Phase 3, and on whose money. Hansen has said the company expects five clinical-stage programs by mid-2027. The August raise is what pays for the first of them.
Until revenue is large enough to be a denominator, the R40 card on this ticker will keep saying n/m, and it will be right to.
Every figure here is derived from AbCellera's own filings via the SEC's XBRL company-facts API — quarterly revenue, operating cash flow, capital expenditure and diluted EPS — with fourth-quarter figures derived as the fiscal year less the first three quarters, and free cash flow as operating cash flow less purchases of property and equipment. The Rule of 40 on this site is quarterly revenue growth year over year plus quarterly free-cash-flow margin; the trailing figure is stated as such where used. Insider transactions are from the Form 4 filings of 12, 14, 18 and 24 August 2026; the offering terms are from the 13 August 424B5. No share-price or valuation claim appears here.
