New York, May 12, 2026, 19:03 EDT
- Velo3D shares slid during the main session but reversed sharply after hours, climbing as Q1 revenue and losses both came in better than forecasts.
- This wasn’t simply a growth-fueled surge. The market liked what it saw: margins looked healthier, losses slimmed down, and management stuck to its guidance for positive EBITDA by the back half of 2026.
- Capital remains the sticking point. Velo3D pulled in $50 million back in April, but losses persist and the going-concern warning hasn’t faded.
Velo3D shares reversed sharply in after-hours action Tuesday. The stock ended the session at $14.06, but after the company reported first-quarter results, it jumped to $17.53—marking a 24.68% gain from the close. Earlier, shares had stumbled in regular trading, so the after-hours rally landed more like a direct response to earnings than a broad move across the sector.
No mystery here—what mattered most was Velo3D’s boost not just in sales, but in profitability. The company’s revenue climbed 48% from last year to $13.8 million, with gross margin jumping to 17.2% from 7.5%. Net loss? Down sharply, landing at $7.0 million compared to $25.0 million.
This is what sent the chart higher. Benzinga pointed out that Velo3D’s per-share loss came in at $0.20, much narrower than the $0.48 analysts had penciled in. Revenue numbers? $13.82 million, blowing past the $9.85 million consensus by over 40%. For a small-cap industrial tech player with a shaky balance sheet, numbers like these can flip sentiment—at least for one session.
Management didn’t shy away. CEO Arun Jeldi labeled the positive gross margin “a key inflection point,” highlighting that defense and aerospace demand is still robust. That’s significant—Velo3D investors have been watching to see if the company’s machines and parts might finally step past pilots, qualification phases, and choppy system sales. PR Newswire
What’s new here is Rapid Production Solutions, or RPS—Velo3D’s service arm that prints parts for clients, not just shipping out the machines. Management’s prepared comments pointed to RPS building longer-term production ties and encouraging customers to return for more across different projects. Backlog hovered just under $30 million, a notch below the $31 million seen at year-end. Company slides show repeat business holding strong, with over 70% of all orders coming from returning customers.
Bulls have something to chew on: Velo3D is starting to see operating leverage—the kind that makes fixed costs sting less as sales climb. Printer and parts revenue surged 60% compared to the first quarter of 2025. Operating expenses dropped, landing at $9.3 million after being $12.2 million. The adjusted EBITDA loss tightened up too, shrinking to $3.6 million from $6.9 million. EBITDA, short for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, is a common yardstick for tracking a company’s progress toward core profitability.
The bear case spells itself out. Velo3D still isn’t turning a profit, burned through $18.0 million in operating cash in Q1, and finished March with $16.6 million left—down sharply from $39.0 million at the end of last year. An equity raise in April added roughly $50 million, but that meant issuing 3.57 million more shares, so shareholders took on more dilution along with the new cash.
That’s why the stock can jump even as hefty risks remain. Back in late March, Velo3D’s auditor flagged a going-concern issue—a red flag signaling the company could run out of options without a turnaround or more cash. The first-quarter numbers help, but don’t fully put those worries to rest. The company still expects to spend $40 million to $50 million on capital expenditures in 2026 for RPS expansion, and that’s only possible if it locks down additional funding.
Competition sets the tone. 3D Systems posted Q1 revenue at $95.5 million and adjusted EBITDA of $2.1 million, boosted by gains in healthcare and aerospace and defense. Stratasys—noticeably bigger than Velo3D—delivered $132.7 million in revenue, turned in positive operating cash flow, and carries zero debt, though its top line dipped from a year ago. Velo3D, the smallest in this bunch, draws buyers anyway. The bet? Its defense-leaning metal printing business might just outpace the field.
With Nano Dimension wrapping up its acquisition of Desktop Metal in April 2025, Desktop Metal drops out as a direct public-market comp. Now, 3D Systems, Stratasys, and Nano Dimension form the main public benchmarks. That shift actually sharpens Velo3D’s turnaround on the Nasdaq—a move driven much more by its outsize earnings beat and solid guidance than by any broad additive-manufacturing rally.
Right now, everything rides on the forecast. Velo3D is sticking with its $60 million to $70 million revenue goal for 2026, eyeing gross margins north of 30% in the back half, and still aiming for positive EBITDA during that stretch. Investors welcomed the mix after results hit. Now comes the grind: converting backlog into deliveries, keeping RPS utilization up, and steering clear of another capital raise that leaves current holders with another dilution hit.
