ExOne (XONE) & VoxelJet (VJET) Report Underwhelming Second Quarter Financial Results

It’s been quite the bumpy ride when it comes to 3D printing companies reporting earnings for this last quarter. On July 31st, 3D Systems reported earnings which were a tad under what analysts had expected, causing their stock to tumble before eventually bouncing back a bit. Exactly a week later, on August 7th, Stratasys, the other 3D printing giant, announced their earnings, which according to many analysts, were considered a ‘blowout’ report. As a results, they saw their stock soar last week.

After the market closed yesterday, two of the smaller, yet very important additive manufacturing companies trading on the NASDAQ, reported their second quarter earnings as well. Both the German based firm, VoxelJet, and the U.S. based firm ExOne issued reports which certainly will not excite investors very much.

ExOne (XONE) reported a per-share loss of 32 cents for the quarter, a much deeper loss than that of a year ago when they reported an 8 cent per share loss. Analysts had expected a loss of only 14 cents on the quarter,

which turned out to be much too optimistic on their part. As for revenue on the quarter, ExOne reported a 21% year-over-year increase, which equated to $11.2 million. This number also fell quite a bit shy of the $12.4 million figure analysts were expecting. With that said, the company still expects full-year revenue growth of 40-50%, despite the rather lackluster quarter. The full report can be found here.

“Given demand from our growing base of industrial customers, we expect that 2014 sales will meet our expectations, although timing of order flow continues to be unpredictable,” noted S. Kent Rockwell, Chairman and CEO. “We expect our development to result in more productive machines that our customers can apply in a variety of industrial applications. More significantly, there is improving clarity for the role and acceptance of our binder jetting technology within 3D printing. The market opportunities that we develop now should be the foundation for our success in 2015 and beyond.”

VoxelJet’s report wasn’t a whole lot better, when considering where the market expected the numbers to come in at. The German company’s losses also widened, as they reported a 0.38 euros per share loss on the quarter. This was compared to last year’s second quarter loss of 0.24 euros per share. VoxelJet’s revenue increased over last year by 31%, equating to 2.73 million euros for the quarter. Both numbers fell short of what analysts and the market had expected. On the bright side, the company’s profit margins increased over this time last year, and their full year guidance fell in line with analysts’ expectations. The full report can be found here.

“We continued to execute our key growth initiatives throughout the second quarter,” stated Dr. Ingo Ederer, Chief Executive Officer of Voxeljet, “Demand for both our 3D printing systems and on-demand printed parts remains robust, and we reaffirm our financial guidance for the year ending December 31, 2014. In Systems, we delivered two printers, while increased levels of quoting and sales activity contributed to a solid backlog at the end of the quarter. Services performed well, benefiting from a favorable product mix and the recently completed capacity expansion at our European on-demand service center in Germany. We generated record sales in plastics and received record orders for sand parts in the quarter.”

Both stocks are down pre market today. VoxelJet is off 7.7%, while Exone is trading 8.7% lower, as of the time of publishing this story.

It is tough to really read too much into some of these reports, as the market for these printers can be cyclical. The fact that both companies expect to meet their yearly guidance figures, point to this just being an off quarter. Are you an investor in either VJET or XONE? Let’s hear your thoughts on the second quarter report in the ExOne & Voxeljet Financial report forum thread on 3DPB.com.