Analysts Continue To Talk About ExOne

In a report published Wednesday, Brean Capital analyst Ananda Baruah maintained a Hold rating on

, after the company reported softer-than-expected results for the December quarter due to the adverse impact of FX, customer set-up times and incremental expense. ExOne announced its Dec Q revenue and EPS at $15.8M and a loss of $0.51, compared to consensus of $18.6M and a loss of $0.05. "The revenue miss was due to FX and XONE shipping orders but customers not yet installing them by Dec Q end (XONE recognizes revenue upon install). So essentially the activity of the Dec Q was inside the low-end of XONE's revenue expectation range," Baruah mentioned. ExOne reiterated its 2015 guidance of $58M-$66M in revenues, representing 30% - 50% growth. Despite this, the analyst believes that the stock "remains at bay in the N-T." In the report, Brean Capital noted, "…we believe the complexion of both XONE's transition and its stock potential has begun to shift in meaningful ways, even though it is not yet reflected in the share price." "First, XONE's cost structure (which ramped materially in '14 as they built out both capacity and ramped new product programs) should be stable through '15, and down Y/Y," the analyst wrote. Moreover, if ExOne can achieve the projected revenue growth of 30%-50% through the rest of this year, which is likely to be driven by "the adoption of new higher ASP production products" and "the ongoing adoption of new customer programs," the company would have robust momentum entering 2016. It would then be able to "put together a consistent year of both accelerating revenue growth and material margin expansion, which could lead to a solid year of profitability and serve as a powerful stock catalyst," Baruah added.