You’ve — from previous questions — answers, certain companies, of course, not feel capable to run — exist in this space. But we feel that even with this largest gene panel, we can offer the efficiency and we can offer more quality tests and to address the market demand. So our fund will be allocated to continue in terms of the R&D to boost our capabilities. We’re looking for the set of space and looking for the consolidation but in addition, Paul, can address some of the share repurchase program.
Paul Kim: I think your question is excellent, because at the end of the day, our unallocated cash position on a relative basis is as strong as ever. We’ve been very aggressive doing stock buyback. We’ve acquired a number of businesses. We feel so comfortable with our business capability and the prospects for the future, we still have a sizable cash balance. I think that you’ve seen that even with the losses for the quarter, excluding investing and financing activities, we still generated cash during the quarter. The other thing, as we talked about revenues and the color around revenues and yes, we’re guiding towards losses for the entire year. And part of that is because of the reduced growth in the operating margin. But underneath that, if you take a look at the dynamics for the fourth quarter which included a number of charges that were COVID-related and then — which also included, right, Anatomic Pathology which typically has a lower margin profile.
But when we take a look at the micro dynamics of what we believe will happen in 2023, aside from the confidence that we have with the core revenues, so we do anticipate an uptick in growth as well as operating margins. In other words, you saw the low gross margin in the fourth quarter of 2022, in the first quarter of 2023, the gross margins can be as high as 7 points, 8 points or 9 points of what you’ve seen in the fourth quarter. And that kind of increase in the gross margins we anticipate it to increase throughout the course of the year. And then a similar thing for the operating expenses, you saw a number of charges and things that were COVID-related in the fourth quarter. On an absolute dollar basis, you should see lower operating expenses in each of the quarters than what you saw in the fourth quarter.
Aside from onetime and other kind of like normal charges, we do see containment, right, within our cost structure. And if you combine that with our capabilities and what we laid out in the core, yes, we’re not projecting profits for 2023 but the cash burn, right, should be significantly reduced which kind of gets us back to what are we going to be doing with that cash? I think all of those options are still very much open for the company.
Unidentified Analyst: Appreciate the significant color there. The one thing I have a question on there, talking about OpEx moving lower. I believe Brandon mentioned we might see some S&M adds to the commercial team over the summer. Could you maybe discuss some of the dynamics there and what we can expect in terms of dollar impact?
Paul Kim: Yes, yes. So I’ll kind of like frame it and I’ll turn it over to Brandon. The thing that you saw in the fourth quarter which we kind of began prior to that was the wind down of COVID. So there were a number of alignments that we made reductions, right, that was related to COVID. And then that pivot has started, right, over a quarter ago as to how we look at 2023. So aggressive hiring and what we can do to further bolster our entire commercial organization has been built into the 2023 plan. So now I’ll turn it over to Brandon, who can talk about where he sees his focus and expanding the team and spending for us to achieve these targets.
