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What to Expect From Proto Labs (PRLB) This Earnings Season?

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Proto Labs, Inc. (PRLB - Free Report) is scheduled to report fourth-quarter 2017 results on Feb 8, before the market opens.

In the past four quarters, the company delivered better-than-expected results, with an average positive earnings surprise of 7.06%. Last quarter, its earnings of 56 cents per share exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 7.69%.

In the last three months, the company’s shares have yielded 24.4% return, outperforming the gain of 21.1% recorded by the industry it belongs to.



Factors to Influence Q4 Results

Constant innovation of products, rising usage of Internet-of-Things devices and growing demand for personalized products (especially in health care, retail and financial services markets) are increasing the need for custom prototypes and low-volume production. We believe Proto Labs is uniquely positioned to leverage benefits from such favorable market trends.

In addition, the company is working toward expanding its geographical footprint, adding new customers, sourcing more business from existing customers, focusing on developing new manufacturing processes and offering improvised products. Expansion of the 3D printing services with the addition of Multi Jet Fusion technology and on-demand manufacturing service for molded production parts will work in the company’s favor.

The acquisition of Rapid Manufacturing Group in the fourth quarter will create top- and bottom-line synergies as detailed below. The buyout has enhanced Proto Labs’ expertise in CNC machining as well as expanded its service offerings with the inclusion of sheet metal fabrication service.

For the fourth quarter, Proto Labs anticipates revenues to be within $85-$90 million and non-GAAP earnings per share to be within 52-58 cents. Including the impact of the Rapid Manufacturing buyout, revenues are predicted to be $89-$94 million and non-GAAP earnings are expected to be 53-59 cents. The number of unique product developers served is likely to grow from 16,909 served in the third quarter.

On the flip side, rising competition from other prototype manufacturers, any failure in the research and development of new products and inability to meet the specific requirements of customers remain concerns.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model provides some idea on the stocks that are about to release their earnings results. Per the model, a stock needs to have a combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for a likely earnings beat. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

That is not the case for Proto Labs as you will see below.

Zacks ESP: Earnings ESP of Proto Labs is currently 0.00%. This is because both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate stand at 56 cents.

Proto Labs, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
 

Proto Labs, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | Proto Labs, Inc. Quote

Zacks Rank: Proto Labs’ Zacks Rank #3 when combined with 0.00% ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.

Note that we caution against stocks with Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell-rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Stocks to Consider

Here are some companies in the Zacks Industrial Products sector that you may want to consider as our model shows they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:

Colfax Corporation , with an Earnings ESP of +0.98% and a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Roper Technologies, Inc. (ROP - Free Report) , with an Earnings ESP of +6.84% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (LECO - Free Report) , with an Earnings ESP of +0.91% and a Zacks Rank #3.

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