Voxeljet AG VJET is slated to report first-quarter 2017 results on May 11, after the closing bell.
The company’s dismal earnings spell continued as it missed estimates for the sixth consecutive time in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Let's see how things are shaping up for this announcement.
Factors to Consider
The 3D printing industry has been battling a widespread decline in demand for enterprise 3D printers over the past two years. Other headwinds, including economic slowdown, inflation, currency fluctuations and commodity prices vagaries, have also marred the performance of most players in the industry. We expect Voxeljet’s first-quarter 2017 results to be adversely affected by these factors.
Over the past few quarters, Voxeljet has been suffering from delayed customer adoption rates, which, in turn, led to a decline of order backlogs. Moreover, depressed oil prices, which have caused investment deferrals by clients, affected Voxeljet’s oil and gas extraction equipment business. Also, some of the company’s key customers are facing supply chain redesign issues which are further delaying investments.
The company’s top line has taken a beating on account of these factors and we believe first-quarter 2017 sales will continue to shrink. In addition, during the fourth quarter of 2016, lower revenue contribution from the U.K. subsidiary proved to be a growth dampener. Though the business streamlining efforts are expected to boost long-term growth, higher restructuring costs in relation to the U.K. business are likely to thwart first-quarter 2017 results.
Despite these negatives, Voxeljet’s first-quarter 2017 results are likely to benefit from capacity expansion and cost savings stemming from restructuring efforts. The company’s large scale service centers across the globe, including the recently opened subsidiaries in China and India, are expected to boost growth. Moreover, a demand uptick in installing additional 3D printing equipments is also anticipated to be conducive to the first-quarter top line.
Earnings Whispers
Our proven model does not conclusively show that Voxeljet will beat earnings estimates in this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. But that is not the case here as you will see below.
Zacks ESP: Earnings ESP for the company is 0.00%. This is because both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate are pegged at a loss of 12 cents. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.