Q4 2025 Earnings: Growth Tech and Biotech Face Steep EPS Misses

The Q4 2025 earnings season has delivered a sobering reality check for several high-growth entities across the energy storage, digital media, and biotechnology sectors. On March 5, 2026, a cluster of reports highlighted a recurring theme: widening losses that significantly overshot analyst estimates. Leading the pack in terms of negative variance was ESS Tech, Inc. (GWH), whose earnings per share (EPS) miss signaled potential headwinds in the commercialization of its iron-flow battery technology.

ESS Tech reported a staggering loss of $1.97 per share, nearly triple the $0.76 loss anticipated by Wall Street. This discrepancy points to an aggressive burn rate that has yet to be offset by the scaling of its long-duration energy storage solutions. As the global transition to renewable energy intensifies, ESS Tech occupies a critical niche, yet the financial results suggest that the transition from pilot projects to industrial-scale profitability remains fraught with capital-intensive hurdles. Investors will likely look for signs of improved manufacturing efficiency and cost-of-goods-sold (COGS) reduction in the coming quarters to justify the current valuation.

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ESS Tech reported a staggering loss of $1.97 per share, nearly triple the $0.76 loss anticipated by Wall Street.

Similarly, Rumble Inc. (RUM) continues to grapple with the high costs of infrastructure and content acquisition. Reporting an EPS of -$0.15 against an expected -$0.11, the video platform’s results reflect the ongoing difficulty of challenging established giants like YouTube. While Rumble has successfully carved out a specific ideological and creator-centric demographic, the path to a sustainable bottom line appears elongated as the company invests heavily in its cloud infrastructure and creator incentives. The miss suggests that user growth and monetization are not yet scaling fast enough to outpace the operational expenses required to maintain a global video distribution network.

In the life sciences sector, REGENXBIO Inc. (RGNX) also fell short, posting a loss of $1.30 per share compared to the $1.01 loss expected. For biotech firms at this stage, such misses are often tied to the escalating costs of late-stage clinical trials and the complex manufacturing requirements of gene therapies. Investors typically tolerate these losses in exchange for positive clinical data, but in a tighter monetary environment, the margin for error on financial forecasting has narrowed considerably. The wider loss may indicate accelerated spending on its pipeline, which could be viewed positively if it leads to faster regulatory filings, but the immediate market reaction often focuses on the cash runway.