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What's happening?
Shares of Stratasys Ltd. (SSYS +3.24%) dropped 12% Wednesday after the additive manufacturing specialist announced strong third-quarter results, but followed with disappointing guidance.
Why it's happening
Quarterly revenue climbed 62% to $203.6 million, which translated to adjusted net income of $30.1 million, or $0.58 per diluted share. Both figures exceeded Wall Street's expectations, which called for earnings of $0.57 per share on sales of $195.5 million. After highlighting Stratasys' 35% organic revenue growth, continued impressive sales of MakerBot products, and strong sales of higher-margin products, Stratasys CEO David Reis added "Overall, we are very pleased with our third quarter results, as we continued to recognize strong demand across a wide range of products and applications."
Despite this outperformance, however, Stratasys merely reiterated its full-year 2014 revenue guidance range of $750 million-$770 million, which is in line with expectations. Stratasys also lowered both ends of its guidance for adjusted net income per share by $0.04, resulting in a new range of $2.21-$2.31. Wall Street was modeling earnings at the high end of that range.
To Stratasys' credit, it says that earnings guidance reduction is a byproduct of its recent acquisition of GrabCAD, so this isn't a symptom of a broader problem. To the contrary, it appears Stratasys' business has never been stronger as it continues its habit of making investments and acquisitions for future growth.
