Shares in Tucson-based medical device startup Accelerate Diagnostics closed at an all-time high Thursday, as investors reacted to the company’s latest financial results.
Accelerate’s shares closed Thursday at $29.25, up $1.85 or nearly 7 percent, in trading on the Nasdaq. The stock hit a 52-week high of $29.60 during the session.
On Wednesday, Accelerate reported first-quarter net sales of its new infection-detection systems totaling $530,000, compared with $163,000 in first quarter of 2016.
But the company continued to lose money as as it continued the rollout of its system to help hospitals rapidly detect and identify bacterial infections in blood, posting a first-quarter net loss of $14.2 million.
Accelerate said it has placed 191 of its machines under contract with customers, including evaluation contracts covering 169 instruments and 22 instruments converted into revenue-generating placements.
Accelerate is based at the county’s Abrams Public Health Center, where it has benefited from nearly $2 million worth of lease and building-improvement incentives that Pima County offered to lure the company from Denver in 2013.
