Manufacturing services provider Proto Labs (NYSE:PRLB) will be reporting earnings this Friday before market hours. Here’s what investors should know.
Proto Labs beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 1.1% last quarter, reporting revenues of $135.4 million, up 7.8% year on year. It was a very strong quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and a solid beat of analysts’ adjusted operating income 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, analysts are expecting Proto Labs’s revenue to grow 6.3% year on year to $129.5 million, a reversal from the 2.6% decrease it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.34 per share.
Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Proto Labs has only missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates once over the last two years, exceeding top-line expectations by 2.1% on average.
Looking at Proto Labs’s peers in the industrial machinery segment, some have already reported their Q4 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Kennametal delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 9.8%, beating analysts’ expectations by 1%, and GE Aerospace reported revenues up 17.6%, topping estimates by 13.9%. GE Aerospace traded down 7.7% following the results.
Read our full analysis of Kennametal’s results here and GE Aerospace’s results here.
There has been positive sentiment among investors in the industrial machinery segment, with share prices up 8% on average over the last month. Proto Labs is down 1.1% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $56.67 (compared to the current share price of $53.49).
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