What happened The stock of Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ: PACB), a company developing DNA sequencing machines, is losing ground after an investor update. Preliminary fourth-quarter sales figures missed expectations, driving the stock 11.8% lower as of 12:54 p.m. ET on Tuesday. So what Preliminary sales figures from the fourth quarter weren't bad, but they were slightly less than the market was expecting. The average investment bank analyst covering Pacific Biosciences of California (or PacBio) was expecting $36.6 million in revenue. PacBio stock is falling today because the company reported unaudited fourth-quarter revenue that reached just $36 million. Image source: Getty Images. Compared to the prior-year period, revenue soared 33%. The company even placed 48 next-generation Sequel systems during the last three months of 2021, which was a new quarterly record. Now what The narrow miss probably doesn't warrant such a strong move to the downside. That said, shares of PacBio were trading at some very lofty valuations. Despite the recent losses, the genetic sequencing stock is still trading at around 24.3 times trailing sales. To provide market-beating gains from its still-lofty valuation, PacBio needs to maintain its current growth rate for at least several more years. A recently expanded collaboration with Invitae (NYSE: NVTA) will help by giving the company a hand in the rapidly expanding field of blood-based cancer detection. 10 stocks we like better than Pacific Biosciences of CaliforniaWhen our award-winning analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* They just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Pacific Biosciences of California wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of January 10, 2022 Cory Renauer owns Invitae. The Motley Fool owns and recommends Invitae. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source