Voxeljet (NYSE:VJET) Reports Blowout 4th Quarter 2014 Earnings

Another week, another fourth quarter and year-end earnings report from a publicly traded 3D printing company. After the market closed yesterday, Friedberg, Germany-based voxeljet AG (NYSE:VJET) reported earnings. After a year which has been anything but rosy for the entire industry, voxeljet investors looked towards this report for a glimmer of hope, and boy did they get one.

Trading at just 33% of where the stock was just 8 months ago, and at over an 82% discount from its high early last year, voxeljet shareholders certainly will embrace this news.

Forth quarter revenue came in much higher than analysts had predicted, with the company reporting €6.94M ($7.56M) versus expectations of around €6.09M. Additionally, earnings per share came in at (€0.17), while analysts had been expecting (€0.22). For the full year, revenue came in at €16.16M, representing a year over year increase of 38%.

Back in November, the company spooked the market when they revised their full-year guidance down from €18M to between €15-€16M. The fact that they’ve beat their own guidance from a few months ago has lit a fire under shares this morning, which are trading in the pre-market up over 12%.

“I am pleased with our fourth quarter results,” explained Dr. Ingo Ederer, Chief Executive Officer of voxeljet. “We sold seven printers in the quarter and shipped record box volumes for sand parts and generated strong revenues for plastic parts. This helped us achieve the high end of the revenue guidance for the year which we provided back in November. With the first quarter of 2015 nearly complete and the progress of our strategic initiatives, we are off to a good start for the year and we reaffirm our full year 2015 guidance of between kEUR 23,000 and kEUR 24,000 for the group.”

Voxeljet also seems to be managing expenses rather well. While their R&D and administrative expenses have risen, they have managed to pretty much cancel out this increase by reducing other costs such as sales expenses.

Coming off this quarter, which saw total revenue increase by 87.8% when compared to the 4th quarter of 2013, the company seems to be in decent shape. Gross margins are remaining relatively steady at 39.1% for the year and the company has recently acquired a new license which will allow for additional service revenue from clients in the more traditional injection molding market.

“We began printing on-demand parts at our service facility in Detroit in the first quarter of 2015 and the integration of our subsidiary in the United Kingdom is going well,” stated Dr.Ederer. “In keeping with our ongoing research and development efforts, we recently acquired a license from Evonik Industries for a 3D printing process using polymeric materials with distinct speed and cost benefits. This process is expect[ed] to compete with more traditional plastic injection molding and opens up new markets and opportunities for us including the ability to deliver final functional parts. We are very excited about this opportunity and will update you periodically with our progress.”

As 2015 is upon us and the market continues to expand for both 3D printing hardware and services, it will be interesting to watch and see if voxeljet can continue to execute on their strategy to become a profitable company.

Are you a voxeljet shareholder? Let’s hear your thoughts on this quarterly and annual report. Discuss in the voxeljet Earnings forum thread on 3DPB.com.