3D Systems wasn’t the only big name in 3D printing to cut its projected profits for 2014. Releasing its Q3 results, Stratasys Ltd. (SSYS) too lowered its profit forecast for the year, due to the acquisition of GrabCAD and increased development costs. Despite this cut in its forecast, the company reported better-than-anticipated results for the quarter.
Thanks to sales of MakerBot products, Stratasys reported a 62% increase in their revenue for the third quarter. MakerBot currently holds about 35% of the desktop 3D printer market and the sale of their machines increased 80% compared to this time last year, increasing sales from $125.6 million to $203.6 million. CEO David Reis expands, “Our organic revenue growth in the third quarter was an impressive 35%, as demand for our industry-leading products and services remained very strong. We believe this trend validates our leadership position, supports our strategic initiatives, and reflects favorably on the contributions made by our recent acquisitions. As MakerBot sales continue to impress, sales of our higher-margin products remained a key growth driver during the third quarter, which had a positive impact on margins during the period. Overall, we are very pleased with our third quarter results, as we continued to recognize strong demand across a wide range of products and applications.”
This quarter saw Stratasys complete its acquisition of both Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies, in addition to HAFNER’S BÜRO, MakerBot’s German distributor, which allowed the company to establish MakerBot Europe. And, today, along with the Q3 results, the company announced the completion of its purchase of GrabCAD.
This last grab, in addition to development costs associated with GrabCAD, led the company to reduce its profit forecast from $2.25-$2.35 per share to $2.21-$2.31, though it still holds that this years revenues will total between $750 million and $770 million. This may have been the cause of the company’s drop in stock today, which is down about 10.9% at the time of this writing. This follows a 3% drop caused by the HP announcement last week. Analyst John Baliotti, with Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, gave his interpretation of the stock drop to Reuters, “I think what is putting the stock under pressure is the market’s concern about these levels of expense, (and) how long will they persist.”
The complete financial report can be read here. The Stratasys (SSYS) Q3 2014 Results – Earnings Call Webcast can be heard below: