Financial results from a few of the major publicly traded 3D printing companies have been a bit disappointing this quarter 🙁 3D Systems cut its projected profits for 2014 after issues handling the high demand for their metal and consumer 3D printers. Stratasys, too, cut its 2014 predictions, despite strong Q3 reports. After releasing their Q3 results, voxeljet (NASDAQ:VJET) and ExOne (NASDAQ:XONE) seem to be following the trend.
Despite an increase in revenue of 6.8%, with systems revenues increasing 23.3%, voxeljet cut its 2014 forecast from kEUR 18,000 to a range of kEUR 15,000 to kEUR 16,000. Due to a disruption in one of the company’s VX4000 3D printers – the largest in their line – at their German service center, the company lost out on sales in the service department, leading to a decrease in service revenues of 11.2%. This, along with the inability to get their Michigan facility up and running and a failure to deliver all of its ordered machines, led to the lowering of their 2014 guidance. Even with the large format machine out of commission, the company still managed to ship a record number of sand and plastic 3D printed parts.
voxeljet CEO, Dr. Ingo Ederer, explains that the ordered printers will be delivered in 2015. The 2014 guidance includes the revenue that is estimated to be generated by the acquisition of Propshop (Model Makers) Limited. Ederer adds, “This has been a transition year for voxeljet, as we are investing and positioning the business for the future. I am very pleased with our progress and the milestones we have achieved. Our long term outlook for revenue growth of approximately 50% annually is unchanged.”
Metal and sand 3D printer manufacturer ExOne posted sales of $9.6 million, 17% less than investors’ expectations of $15.3 million. Similarly, the company’s net income dropped $0.31 per share, $4.5 million, almost three times the investors’ anticipated $0.13 per share. The losses ExOne attributed to the already volatile sales of the company’s equipment, as they believe that long sales cycles and expensive machines make every quarter very dynamic. Whether or not this is true, the sale of equipment dropped 46% from last year’s sales.
On the other hand, ExOne’s in-house manufacturing materials and services grew 42% this quarter, which the company’s CEO, Kent Rockwell, believed would lead to further sales of equipment. Rockwell explains that “acceptance of our binder jetting technology is demonstrated first in non-machine revenue generated from our production service centers and then through machine sales.” Still, ExOne was forced to cut its expected 2014 by $10 million to between $45 million to $50 million.
The news from voxeljet sent shares down 4.8%, but they’ve begun to rise up to $12.44/share at the time of this writing. ExOne, too dropped 3.6%, but is back on the rise to $20.77/share as I write.
