Proto Labs (PRLB) Q3 2026 Earnings Call: Rekordumsatz und höhere Prognose für das Gesamtjahr

Proto Labs (NYSE: PRLB) verzeichnete im dritten Quartal 2026 einen Rekordumsatz, da eine starke Nachfrage in den Bereichen CNC-Bearbeitung, 3D-Druck und Spritzguss ein weiteres Quartal mit zweistelligem Wachstum stützte. Die Profitabilität verbesserte sich trotz kurzfristigen Drucks auf die Bruttomarge der Fertigung.

Wichtigste Erkenntnisse

• Der Umsatz im dritten Quartal 2026 erreichte mit 154,3 Millionen US-Dollar einen Unternehmensrekord, was währungsbereinigt einem Anstieg von 14,2 % gegenüber dem Vorjahr entspricht und das vierte Quartal in Folge mit zweistelligem Wachstum markiert.
• Das Non-GAAP-EPS stieg um 33,4 % auf 0,63 US-Dollar und verzeichnete damit den höchsten bereinigten Gewinn je Aktie seit dem dritten Quartal 2020. Das bereinigte EBITDA kletterte auf 26,2 Millionen US-Dollar bzw. 17,0 % des Umsatzes.
• Der Umsatz pro Kunde stieg im Jahresvergleich um 17 %, während Proto Labs fast 21.000 Kunden bediente. Das Management führte den Anstieg auf vertiefte Beziehungen zu strategischen Kunden und eine Expansion über den gesamten Produktlebenszyklus zurück.
• Der Umsatz mit CNC-Bearbeitung im Werk stieg um 22 %, während der globale Umsatz mit 3D-Druck um 12 % zulegte. Das Management verwies auf eine starke Nachfrage aus den Bereichen Luft- und Raumfahrt, Verteidigung, Weltraumtechnik, Drohnen, Robotik und Rechenzentren.
• Proto Labs hob seine Prognose für das Umsatzwachstum im Gesamtjahr 2026 von 8 %–10 % auf 10 %–11 % an. Das Management geht davon aus, dass dies das erste Jahr mit zweistelligem organischem Umsatzwachstum seit 2018 sein wird.
• Für das vierte Quartal wird ein Umsatz zwischen 143 Millionen und 151 Millionen US-Dollar erwartet, bei einem Non-GAAP-EPS von 0,46 bis 0,54 US-Dollar. Der Ausblick berücksichtigt die gewöhnliche feiertagsbedingte Saisonalität sowie eine geringere Werksauslastung.

Wichtige Finanzdaten

In den ersten neun Monaten des Jahres 2026 stieg der Umsatz um 12 %, die bereinigte operative Marge erweiterte sich um 300 Basispunkte und das bereinigte EPS legte um 46 % zu. Das bereinigte EBITDA stieg im Jahresvergleich um 27,2 %.

Geschäfts- und operative Entwicklung

Der Umsatz im Bereich CNC-Bearbeitung stieg währungsbereinigt um 16,7 % gegenüber dem Vorjahr. Die CNC-Bearbeitung im Werk wuchs um 22 %, gestützt auf die Nachfrage aus der Raumfahrt, der Satellitenbranche, dem Drohnensektor und der Robotik. Das Management gab bekannt, dass der US-Umsatz der CNC-Fertigung im Werk nun seit sechs Quartalen in Folge um mehr als 20 % gewachsen ist.

Der Umsatz im Bereich Spritzguss stieg währungsbereinigt um 12,6 %, angetrieben durch Elektronik, Luft- und Raumfahrt sowie Verteidigung und Telekommunikation. Der Umsatz im 3D-Druck nahm um 11,5 % zu, getragen von einer starken US-Nachfrage nach direktem Metall-Lasersintern und HP Multi Jet Fusion. Seit Jahresbeginn stieg der MJF-Umsatz im US-Werksbetrieb um mehr als 40 %, was zu zusätzlichen Kapazitätsinvestitionen führte.

Der Umsatz im Bereich Blechbearbeitung ging währungsbereinigt um 4,6 % zurück. Eine breite Schwäche in den Endmärkten wurde teilweise durch die Nachfrage aus der Luft- und Raumfahrt sowie der Verteidigung ausgeglichen.

Der Umsatz des Werksgeschäfts stieg um 17,5 %, verglichen mit einem Wachstum von 3 % beim Proto Labs Network. Die Dynamik des Netzwerks war in Europa stark, fiel in den USA jedoch schwächer aus, da dort mehr Kunden das schneller liefernde Werksangebot wählten.

Proto Labs bediente im Laufe des Quartals fast 21.000 Kunden, was den dritten sequenziellen Anstieg in Folge darstellt. Der Umsatz pro Kunde stieg um 17 %, da größere strategische Kunden ihre Nutzung der Fertigungsdienstleistungen des Unternehmens ausweiteten.

Europa verzeichnete nach den Ende 2025 eingeleiteten Anpassungen der Go-to-Market-Strategie ein zweistelliges Umsatzwachstum. Das Management erklärte, dass die Transformation der Region weiterhin ein längerfristiges Unterfangen bleibt, mit dem Ziel, Europa zu einem Treiber für Wachstum und Profitabilität zu machen.

Zudem erweiterte das Unternehmen ProDesk um neue Wärmebehandlungen für den Metall-3D-Druck, FDM-Kapazitäten und zusätzliche CNC-Oberflächenveredelungen. Proto Labs entwickelt KI-unterstützte Bestellprüfungen und führt Amazon Quick im gesamten Unternehmen ein, wobei der Fokus zunächst auf Go-to-Market-Workflows und der Verarbeitung von Angebotserstellungen liegt. Die Umsetzung wird voraussichtlich bis ins Jahr 2027 dauern.

Prognose des Managements

Proto Labs erwartet für das vierte Quartal 2026 einen Umsatz von 143 Millionen bis 151 Millionen US-Dollar. Der Mittelwert entspricht einem Wachstum von etwa 8 % gegenüber dem Vorjahr. Es wird erwartet, dass Währungseinflüsse im Vergleich zu Q4 2025 eine vernachlässigbare Rolle spielen.

Das Unternehmen hob seine Prognose für das Umsatzwachstum im Gesamtjahr 2026 von der bisherigen Spanne von 8 %–10 % auf 10 %–11 % an.

Für das vierte Quartal wird ein Non-GAAP-EPS von 0,46 bis 0,54 US-Dollar erwartet. Die Prognose beinhaltet rund 4,1 Millionen US-Dollar an aktienbasierter Vergütung, 900.000 US-Dollar an Abschreibungen sowie einen effektiven Non-GAAP-Steuersatz von 19 %–21 %.

Das Management rechnet für das vierte Quartal im Vergleich zum Vorquartal mit einer unveränderten bis leicht niedrigeren Bruttomarge. Die Kosten für Maschinenmodernisierungen dürften zwar sinken, jedoch werden ein geringerer Umsatz, feiertagsbedingte Ineffizienzen in den Werken, der Einsatz von Fremdpersonal und Überstunden diesen Vorteil voraussichtlich teilweise zunichtemachen. Die Vertriebs-, Allgemein- und Verwaltungskosten (SG&A) als Prozentsatz des Umsatzes werden voraussichtlich eher den Niveaus von Q1 und Q2 ähneln als dem niedrigeren Niveau von Q3.

Für 2027 erklärte das Management, dass das Wachstum der Betriebsausgaben voraussichtlich näher am Umsatzwachstum liegen wird, da Proto Labs die Investitionen in Kapazitäten und strategische Initiativen erhöht. Das Unternehmen geht derzeit davon aus, seinen prozentualen Bruttomargenwert zu halten, obwohl das Ergebnis vom Produkt- und Dienstleistungsmix abhängen wird.

Risiken und Beobachtungspunkte

• Die Non-GAAP-Bruttomarge ging zurück, da höhere Rohstoffkosten, Maschinenmodernisierungen und temporäre Personalinvestitionen den Werksbetrieb belasteten.
• Die Saisonalität im vierten Quartal wird voraussichtlich den Umsatz verringern und Ineffizienzen in den Werken verursachen, da Mitarbeiter Urlaub nehmen, was möglicherweise den Einsatz von Fremdpersonal und Überstunden erforderlich macht.
• Die Nachfrage für das Proto Labs Network in den USA fiel schwächer aus, während die Nachfrage im Werksgeschäft stark blieb.
• Europa kehrte zu zweistelligem Wachstum zurück, jedoch gab das Management zu bedenken, dass die Neuausrichtung der Profitabilität nach wie vor ein laufender Prozess ist.
• Der Bereich Blechbearbeitung sah sich weiterhin mit einer breiten Schwäche in den Endmärkten konfrontiert.
• Analysten äußerten Unsicherheiten bezüglich künftiger Verteidigungsbudgets. Das Management entgegnete, dass die Nachfrage über Raumfahrt, Satelliten, Drohnen, Robotik und Rechenzentren hinweg breit gefächert sei, und hielt an seinem Ziel eines zweistelligen Wachstums auf absehbare Zeit fest.

Highlights der Analysten-Fragerunde

Das Management führte den 17-prozentigen Anstieg des Umsatzes pro Kunde auf die Abdeckung durch den Großkundenvertrieb, vertiefte Beziehungen zu ausgewählten priorisierten Kunden sowie eine stärkere Beteiligung vom Prototypen bis zur Serienfertigung zurück. Das Unternehmen hat seinen Schwerpunkt von breit angelegter Innovation hin zu maßgeschneiderten Lösungen für vorrangige Kunden und Branchen verlagert.

Hinsichtlich des Rückgangs der Bruttomarge im Vergleich zum Vorquartal schätzte das Management, dass etwa 100 Basispunkte auf Maschinenmodernisierungen und rund 90 Basispunkte auf Fremdpersonal entfielen, während der Rest auf Materialkosten zurückzuführen war. Das Unternehmen erwarb im vergangenen Jahr mehr als 40 neue Maschinen und verzeichnete im dritten Quartal direkt bestimmte Modernisierungskosten.

Das Management erklärte, dass die Kosten für Maschinenmodernisierungen und Fremdpersonal variabel seien und im Laufe der Zeit sinken können. Allerdings dürften das für Q4 erwartete geringere Volumen und der feiertagsbedingte Personalbedarf eine kurzfristige Erholung der Marge begrenzen.

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Ausführungen des Managements

Operator

Greetings. Welcome to the Proto Labs Q3 Fiscal Year 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Ryan Johnsrud, Investor Relations. Thank you, Ryan. You may begin.

Ryan Johnsrud

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Proto Labs' Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. I'm joined today by Suresh Krishna, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Dan Schumacher, Chief Financial Officer. This morning, Proto Labs issued a press release announcing its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2026. The release is available on the company's website. In addition, a prepared slide presentation is available online at the web address provided in our press release.

Our discussion today will include statements relating to future performance and expectations that are or may be considered forward-looking statements and subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Please refer to our earnings press release and recent SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K for information on certain risks that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially and adversely from any forward-looking statements made today.

The results and guidance we will discuss include non-GAAP financial measures, consistent with our past practice. Please refer to our press release and the accompanying slide presentation at the Investor Relations section of our company website for a complete reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results. Now I will turn the call over to Suresh Krishna. Suresh?

Suresh Krishna

Thank you, Ryan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our earnings call. I am very pleased with our third quarter performance, which provides further evidence that the execution of our strategy is translating into strong and consistent financial results. Third quarter revenue grew 14%, resulting in another record revenue quarter. This is the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. We also delivered double-digit non-GAAP EPS growth for the fourth consecutive quarter with EPS growth outpacing revenue growth in each of these quarters.

In the first 9 months of 2026, year-over-year revenue grew 12%, adjusted operating margin expanded 300 basis points and adjusted EPS grew 46%, underscoring the consistency of our execution and the strength of our momentum. These results are driven by the tremendous work of our Proto Labs team and their continued commitment to serving our customers. I want to thank them all for everything they do every day. The trends that drove strong performance in the first half of the year continued in the third quarter.

Larger strategic customers continue to broaden their relationships with Proto Labs and turn to us for more of their manufacturing needs across the entire product life cycle. This is reflected in a 17% year-over-year increase in revenue per customer. In addition, we served almost 21,000 customers in the quarter, up sequentially for the third straight quarter. We continue to see strong demand in high-growth industries, including aerospace, defense, drones, robotics and data centers. We work with most innovative companies in these markets, including Blue Origin, Relativity Space, Raytheon, AeroVironment, Shield AI, Agility Robotics and many others. These customers need to rapidly move from ideas to prototypes and into production, making Proto Labs' speed, quality and reliability increasingly critical. We saw broad-based strength across our business in the third quarter with each of our 3 largest service lines growing double digits year-over-year.

Factory CNC Machining was particularly strong, growing 22% as our world-class speed continues to resonate with customers. Global 3D printing revenues grew 12%, led by strong demand from metals and HP's Multi Jet Fusion technology, or MJF. Year-to-date, MJF revenue in our U.S. factory operation is up more than 40%, and we are investing in additional capacity to support that growth. Proto Labs is at the center of a major shift taking place in manufacturing driven by 4 powerful macro trends.

First, reindustrialization. Companies are bringing manufacturing closer to their customers and building more resilient regional and sovereign supply chains. Second, a wave of hardware innovation moving at the speed of software. Investment is accelerating across critical and emerging industries like space, drones, robotics, data centers and other highly engineered hardware that ultimately needs to be designed, tested and manufactured from prototype to production at faster speeds than ever before.

Third, physical AI. AI is moving beyond software and into the physical world, driving a new generation of robotics, autonomous systems, intelligent machines and other advanced products that require manufacturing to leverage physical AI. And fourth, supply chain agility and scalability. As innovation accelerates, companies need manufacturing partners that can invest and scale with them without the manpower and capital constraints of traditional supply chains.

This is exactly the environment Proto Labs is built for. We help customers move quickly from idea to prototype to production while delivering the quality, reliability and scalable capacity they need. And we have an important structural advantage, our true digital thread. Proto Labs' software-native digital manufacturing model enables speed and automation today while creating a foundation to leverage AI and scale efficiently over time. And with millions of CAD files and decades of manufacturing data in our library, we have a powerful foundation to apply AI, advance our manufacturing capabilities and create more valuable solutions for our customers.

We are already seeing the benefits of these trends in our business, and we believe they create a significant opportunity for Proto Labs over the next several years. We continue to invest in capabilities to capture the opportunity ahead. We are advancing our 4 strategic pillars: elevating the customer experience, accelerating innovation, expanding into production and driving operational efficiency. I'd like to share several important business and product updates with you now.

On ProDesk, we launched new metal 3D printing heat treatments, FDM printing capabilities and additional CNC Machining surface finishes, giving customers more control over part performance, surface quality and finishing requirements. Next, we continue to enhance the Proto Labs Network with improvements designed to accelerate order acceptance, improve partner communication and strengthen quality. We are also developing AI-assisted order checks to identify specification discrepancies earlier and further automate the customer and partner experience.

With respect to improving efficiency across the organization, last week, we announced an enterprise implementation of Amazon Quick as part of our broader AI road map. Our initial focus is on go-to-market workflows where we believe AI can improve productivity, reduce response times and streamline order-to-quote processing. To accelerate implementation, we created forward deployed AI engineer roles to identify high-impact use cases and design AI-enabled workflows across the organization. Enterprise-wide implementation will continue into 2027, led by Marc Kermisch, our Chief Technology and AI Officer.

Technology is an important enabler of our strategy, and operational execution is the other. In August, Sam Ramahi was named Chief Operations Officer. Sam brings over 25 years of executive operational leadership across global companies like nVent, Eaton, Honeywell and more. Sam will help advance our strategic pillars while focusing on driving operational excellence across safety, quality, delivery and cost. We are also expanding the talent and capabilities needed to execute our strategy.

We have officially inaugurated our new global capability center in India. Engineers are on site and are working directly on our manufacturing and AI road map. The talent and capabilities we are building in India will help accelerate progress across all 4 strategic pillars. The strength (sic) [ capability ] center strengthens our investments in technologies that will meaningfully improve productivity, including AI, automation and advanced manufacturing capabilities that support our broader digital manufacturing strategy.

Turning to Europe. Revenue grew double digits in the third quarter, in part due to the go-to-market changes we initiated late last year. We are very pleased with this performance, and I want to thank our team in Europe, led by Pjotr Horowitz, for their continued execution and commitment. We continue to advance the initiatives needed to return Europe to profitability, addressing the drivers of underperformance while putting the right organizational structure, operating model, talent and capabilities in place to execute more effectively.

These efforts are designed to complement the go-to-market changes already underway and support further operational improvements. As I shared last quarter, the transformation in Europe remains a work in progress, and it's a longer-term effort. While we are encouraged by double-digit revenue growth, our objective remains unchanged, transform Europe into a contributor to both future growth and profitability.

Before I turn the call over to Dan, I want to highlight 2 recent recognitions of our commitment to manufacturing innovation. In August, we announced a partnership with MIT and a grant supporting U.S. manufacturing innovation research at MIT Industrial Performance Center. And in September, Proto Labs was one of the only 500 U.S. companies named to Business Insider's America's Most Innovative Businesses 2027 list. We are proud of both recognitions and believe they reinforce Proto Labs' position at the center of manufacturing innovation.

In closing, I am very pleased with our results through the first 9 months of the year and the progress we are making on our transformation. At the same time, I believe we are still in the early innings of what this business can achieve. We are executing our strategy at a time when some of the world's most innovative industries are moving faster, manufacturing supply chains are being reconfigured, and speed and digital manufacturing capabilities have never been more important. We believe Proto Labs is uniquely positioned for this environment and the opportunity ahead. We remain focused on building on recent momentum and delivering sustained profitable growth and long-term value for our customers and shareholders.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Dan to walk through the financials and outlook.

Dan Schumacher

Thanks, Suresh, and good morning. I'll start with an overview of our third quarter results, followed by our outlook for the fourth quarter. Third quarter revenue was a company record $154.3 million, up 14.2% year-over-year in constant currencies. U.S. revenue grew 14.7%, while Europe grew 12.2% in constant currencies. Third quarter CNC Machining revenue grew 16.7% year-over-year in constant currencies. Our largest service continues to see very strong demand in aerospace and defense, most notably space exploration, satellites and drones, as well as in robotics.

Injection Molding grew 12.6% in constant currencies, driven by strength in electronics, aerospace and defense and telecommunications. 3D printing revenue increased 11.5% year-over-year in constant currencies. As we saw in the first half of 2026, demand in DMLS and MJF remained very strong in the U.S. We continue to invest capital to expand capacity in those areas. Sheet Metal revenue declined 4.6% year-over-year in constant currencies with broad weakness across end markets, partially offset by strength in aerospace and defense.

On to profitability. Non-GAAP gross margin was 44.5% in the third quarter, down 230 basis points sequentially and 140 basis points year-over-year. The lower gross margin was driven by our factory operations, primarily reflecting higher raw material costs, machine upgrades and targeted near-term investments in labor and contractor support. These were made to accommodate the significant increase in volume over the course of the year while maintaining our standards for speed, quality and reliability. Third quarter non-GAAP operating expenses were $50.3 million, up $1.7 million compared to the prior year, primarily reflecting increased investment in demand generation, along with higher contractor, professional services and software license costs as we continue to fund our strategic priorities.

Importantly, we continue to generate significant operating leverage. Adjusted operating expenses were 32.6% of revenue, down from 34.8% of revenue in the second quarter and 35.9% in the third quarter of 2025. This operating leverage reflects both strong revenue growth and the targeted actions we have taken to improve our cost structure and reallocate resources towards our highest priority growth initiatives. We continue to invest and add resources behind our strategic initiatives while identifying additional efficiencies that can help fund future growth.

Adjusted EBITDA was $26.2 million, or 17% of revenue, up from $21.1 million or 15.6% of revenue in the third quarter of 2025. Year-to-date, adjusted EBITDA is up 27.2% year-over-year. Third quarter non-GAAP earnings per share were $0.63, up 33.4% year-over-year, driven by revenue growth, mix shift and significant leverage on our SG&A expenses. $0.63 is the highest adjusted EPS figure we've reported since the third quarter of 2020. Adjusted EPS is up 45.5% year-over-year year-to-date. We generated $22.8 million in cash from operations during the third quarter, and we repurchased $5 million of common stock. On September 30, we had $175 million of cash and investments on our balance sheet and 0 debt.

Our outlook for the fourth quarter of 2026 is outlined on Slide 14. For the fourth quarter, we expect revenue between $143 million and $151 million. At the midpoint, this implies 8% revenue growth year-over-year. As a result, we are raising our full year 2026 revenue growth outlook from a prior range of 8% to 10% to a new range of 10% to 11%. We anticipate 2026 will be our first year of double-digit organic revenue growth since 2018. We expect foreign currency to have a negligible impact on revenue compared to the fourth quarter of 2025.

Our fourth quarter earnings guidance incorporates the following assumptions: Non-GAAP add-backs will include stock-based compensation expense of approximately $4.1 million and amortization expense of $900,000, a non-GAAP effective tax rate between 19% and 21%. In summary, we expect fourth quarter 2026 non-GAAP earnings per share between $0.46 and $0.54. That concludes our prepared remarks. Nicole, please open the line for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Brian Drab with William Blair.

Fragen und Antworten

Brian Drab

Congrats on a great quarter. Could you just start by talking about -- it looks like revenue per customer is up about 17%. And maybe add some granularity to that in terms of -- is it driven by volume? Or is it also the breadth of services now that you're increasingly offering that's allowing for that -- that's just a very impressive result and where are you seeing the most success?

Suresh Krishna

Brian, this is Suresh. Thanks for your question. As we've talked before, we are absolutely focused on our 4 key strategic pillars, the first of them, which is elevating customer experience. And the second of them, which is accelerating innovation on behalf of the customers. And the third, which is expanding into production, are all contributing to this particular growth that we are seeing in wallet share with our core customer base. Some of the changes we've made to be able to do this well beyond the strategy, is the way we are executing.

We have an enterprise sales team. We are focused on a handful of industries that are high value for us. And those sales teams are building deep customer relationships and listening and turning it around to provide innovation that is specific to these customers. In the past, we may have innovated for the general customer base, which for us is tens of thousands of customers, to now being very focused on the customers where we see high value. So that is where we are able to drive wallet share and increase revenue per customer.

Brian Drab

And then I mean I'm seeing the stock, I'm surprised a little bit to see that the stock is indicating slightly down before the open here. I guess it could be just the guidance for -- midpoint of guidance is $0.50 for the fourth quarter after you just put up $0.63. But is there -- what is there beyond just typical seasonality for the fourth quarter that you're looking at as you guide for that fourth quarter?

Dan Schumacher

Yes. I mean, one, it is typical -- I assume the seasonality that we've seen for the prior 7 years for last quarter. So it is built in there that we expect to see some softness around the holiday time, which, as you know, impacts that EPS number. Second, gross margin, I'm assuming to be flat to slightly down quarter-over-quarter. We don't expect to see the same -- we talked about machine upgrade costs and so forth. We don't expect to see it at that high of a level.

But as we have lower revenue and we have some inefficiency in our factories around the holiday time as we bring in contractors and overtime as employees are taking time off. And then I would expect SG&A expenses as a percent of revenue to look more like the first and second quarter of the year rather than what we saw in the third quarter. So there is a pickup in SG&A expenses as well.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Austin Bohlig with Needham.

Austin Bohlig

Congrats on the great results. I was just hoping to get a little bit more color on, kind of, the growth you're seeing in the factory versus the network. I didn't see what the revenue for the network was, if you could provide that.

Dan Schumacher

Yes. So network revenue was up 3% year-over-year. So that meant that factory growth was up 17.5%. So again, we had higher growth in the factory than we had in the network. From a network side, we are seeing really strong momentum in the network in Europe, but things are a bit softer in the U.S. Our customers, as we come to them, they have a choice in this time in terms of do they need the speed that we're offering through the factory or do they need the breadth of services and maybe longer lead time of the network. And we are just seeing more of our customers in the U.S. take advantage of that speed, and you're seeing that in the tremendous growth.

Austin Bohlig

Got it. And then just one follow-up. So with all the defense or A&D success more broadly, like, with your conversations with your customers, how are you guys feeling this with, like, some uncertainty around the fiscal '27 budget continuing resolution continuing through 2027? Do you guys think that, like, this momentum can continue even with some kind of lingering uncertainty around future budgets?

Suresh Krishna

Yes. Austin, thanks for bringing that up. We are very, very broad-based in terms of the industry we serve, and A&D for us is very broad as well. While there might be some uncertainty around defense budget, we see tremendous opportunity in space exploration, in satellites, in drones, neoprimes, along with the primes. And then beyond that, we absolutely see non-A&D sectors like robotics and data centers also growing. So we are very confident that when you look out into the future that we would continue to be able to drive our goal of double-digit growth for the foreseeable future.

Operator

Our next question is from Brian Drab with William Blair.

Brian Drab

I was just wondering if you could talk maybe for Dan, a little bit further out in terms of how you're thinking about the trajectory of gross margin and expense dollars as we think about 2027, maybe just directionally or at high level, like, different projects that -- and different expenses to think about as we're modeling?

Dan Schumacher

Yes. So we're in the middle of establishing our 2027 budget and plans as we speak. But what I would tell you is we're going to continue to accelerate our investment in several areas. One is expanding our capacity. And the second is investing in our strategic pillars. So that's elevating our customer experience, accelerating innovation, expanding into production, and driving operational efficiency. So with the last one, our objective from a spending perspective is really to focus on how do we continue to increase our efficiencies as we invest.

I would expect next year from an operating expense perspective that the growth in operating expenses would be much closer to the revenue growth next year than what we saw this year as we start to make these investments. From a gross margin perspective, it really is going to depend on the mix that we're seeing and the different types of products that we have and how that plays out as we go through the year. But I would expect that we would be able to hold our gross margin percentage as we go into 2027.

Brian Drab

Okay. I'll follow up more later on that, but that's really clear.

Operator

Our next question comes from Greg Palm with Craig-Hallum.

Greg Palm

Sorry if this got, I guess, maybe explained or specified. I've been juggling a handful of calls this morning. But in terms of the -- maybe the sequential gross margin bridge from Q3 to Q2, a couple of hundred basis points, give or take. Dan, I know you listed a bunch of reasons, but just can you break that out between them? And then just in terms of sustainability or confidence in getting that gross margin level back up from here, maybe just a little bit more color on that, please.

Dan Schumacher

Just to be clear, Greg, you're talking about Q2 to Q3 gross margin?

Greg Palm

Correct.

Dan Schumacher

All right.

Suresh Krishna

Yes. So Greg, as we noted in our prepared remarks, demand has been exceptionally strong in our U.S. factory CNC. Revenues have grown over 20% for 6 quarters in a row. So while our automated model is designed to scale efficiently with this kind of volume increase, we, in this particular quarter, had to do some machine upgrades. We found opportunistically a window where we could do that. And some of our older machines were upgraded so that they could start to perform at the same rate as some of the newer machines that we have acquired more recently.

We've acquired over 40 new machines this past year. So that -- those expenses were incurred within the quarter and not capitalized. And then there were some some contract labor we had to bring in for our support services because we were chasing this growth and make sure that we could deliver everything we needed for our customers within the time frames that we provide them. Beyond that, there was raw material increases that we saw. So those are the pressures that we got in Q3 versus our Q2 performance.

Dan Schumacher

Greg, just to provide more specifics, I would say there's about 100 basis points in those machine upgrades. There's probably about 90 basis points in that contract labor and the remaining in the material cost. I just want to reemphasize that the contract upgrades and obviously, the contract labor, those are all variable costs that we can choose to move over time. And it's really focused on making sure that we have the speed, the quality and the reliability for our customers.

Greg Palm

Okay. So just to be clear, though, so does some of that -- I mean, you incur that completely in Q3 and then it goes away completely for, sort of, Q4 or go forward or...

Dan Schumacher

Yes. Well, one thing I would say is we're always using contract labor, right, to vary depending on the volume that's coming in. But yes, there is some assumption in the guide that, that cost comes down as we're in fourth quarter. But what is, kind of, counteracting that, right, is the lower volume that is in the middle of the guide as well as seasonality. So we may have to use some of that contract labor and some of that overtime as our employees take off for the holidays.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] It looks like we have no more questions in the queue. This now concludes our question-and-answer session. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This concludes today's teleconference. Please disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.