What happened

Industrial 3D printer maker Velo3D (VLD) wasn't exactly printing money for its shareholders on Wednesday. Following a high-level executive resignation, the company's share price ended up taking a steep dive of more than 19% on the day. This was particularly notable given that the bellwether S&P 500 index basically traded flat that session. 

So what

Velo3D announced just after market hours on Tuesday that its CFO William McCombe is stepping down. The resignation is effective this Friday, Sept. 29, although he will remain at the company until Nov. 7 during its transition to a new finance chief. During this time, he will participate in its third-quarter earnings conference call scheduled for that date.

The company said that McCombe is resigning to "pursue other career opportunities." It did not provide any details.

The 3D printer maker added that its current vice president of finance, Bernard Chung, will fill the CFO role on an interim basis. According to his LinkedIn profile, Chung has been with Velo3D since December 2020. Previous to that he served as corporate controller for logistics company Textainer. Among other experiences and employers, he was an internal audit and special investigations official at engineering company Bechtel.

Now what

Velo3D has had its struggles lately. Its second quarter wasn't overly impressive, as the company missed -- albeit narrowly -- analyst projections for net loss and came up short on revenue. Meanwhile, the bottom line has been choppy, with losses occurring more often than profits over the past five quarters. A sudden executive departure isn't helping build confidence in the company's future.