Manufacturing services provider Proto Labs (NYSE: PRLB) will be reporting earnings this Thursday before market open. Here’s what to look for.
Proto Labs beat analysts’ revenue expectations last quarter, reporting revenues of $149.3 million, up 10.6% year on year. It was an exceptional quarter for the company, with EPS guidance for next quarter exceeding analysts’ expectations and an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.
Is Proto Labs a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.
This quarter, the market is expecting Proto Labs’s revenue to grow 10.1% year on year, improving from the 7.8% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year.
Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business will stay the course heading into earnings. Proto Labs has a history of exceeding Wall Street’s expectations.
Looking at Proto Labs’s peers in the industrial machinery segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Gorman-Rupp delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 11.8%, beating analysts’ expectations by 6.4%, and Crane reported revenues up 28.1%, topping estimates by 2.5%. Gorman-Rupp traded up 6.9% following the results.
Read our full analysis of Gorman-Rupp’s results here and Crane’s results here.
Over the past year, investors have repeatedly shifted their focus from one macro narrative to another (AI disruption and AI capex spending to geopolitics, interest rates, and the broader health of the economy). While some of the industrial machinery stocks have shown solid performance in this choppy environment, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 2.7% on average over the last month. Proto Labs is down 5.4% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $101.25 (compared to the current share price of $91.70).
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