Earnings Labs

Stratasys Ltd. (SSYS)

Q2 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 7, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q2 2014 Stratasys Earnings Conference call. My name is Sue and I’ll be your operator for today. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this call is being recorded for replay purposes. I’d now like to turn the call over to Mr. Shane Glenn, Vice President of Investor Relations for Stratasys. Please proceed, sir.

Shane Glenn

Management

Thank you, Sue, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss our second quarter financial results. On the call with us today are David Reis, CEO; and Erez Simha, CFO and COO of Stratasys. A reminder that access to today’s call, including the prepared slide presentation, is available online at the web address provided in our press release. In addition, a replay of today’s call, including access to the slide presentation, will also be available, and can be accessed through the Investor Section of our website. A reminder that certain information included or incorporated in this presentation may be deemed to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements are often characterized by the use of forward-looking terminology such as may, will, expect, anticipate, estimate, continue, believe, should, intend, project or other similar words, but are not the only way these statements are identified. These forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the company’s objectives, plans and strategies, statements that contain projections of results of operations or of financial condition, including, with respect to the MakerBot, Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies acquisitions, and all statements, other than statements of historical facts, that address activities, events or developments that the company intends, expects, projects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties. The company has based these forward-looking statements on assumptions and assessments made by its management in light of their experience and their perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe…

David Reis

Management

Thank you, Shane, and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining today’s call. We are very pleased with our second quarter results, which represent quarterly records for revenue, non-GAAP net income, and non-GAAP earnings per share. We continued to observe strong positive sales momentum for our higher-performance systems and materials, which is reflected in the impressive 35% organic revenue growth we generated during the period compared to last year. Equally impressive were the sales of MakerBot products and services, which contributed $33.6 million to revenue during the second quarter, a 100% increase over the revenue MakerBot generated as an independent company during the same period last year. As we begin the second half of 2014, we expect our positive momentum to continue. Accordingly, we have raised our financial guidance and long-term revenue growth targets. In addition, we continue to position Stratasys for the long-term growth, through improvements in our organizational structure, as well as additional investments in channel and product development. We will also look for additional strategic acquisitions, such as our recent acquisition of Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies, two companies that we believe will contribute exciting new growth opportunities for Stratasys. I will return later in the call to provide you more detail on these developments and our strategy moving forward, but first I would like to turn the call over to our CFO, COO, Erez Simha, who will provide you details on our financial results. Erez.

Erez Simha

Management

Thank you, David, and good morning everyone. As David mentioned in his opening remarks, we are very pleased with our second quarter performance. Financial highlights include; total revenue for the second quarter increasing by 67% over the last year to $178.5 million; impressive year-over-year organic revenue growth of 35%, an acceleration over the rate observed in the first quarter; gross margin coming in at a strong 60% for the quarter; non-GAAP net income for the second quarter increasing by 51% over the last year to $28 million, or $0.55 per diluted share; MakerBot branded products and services contributing $33.6 million to second quarter revenue, a 100% increase over the revenue MakerBot generated as an independent company during the same period last year; the company significantly raising its financial guidance for fiscal 2014 to account for our improved outlook, as well as to account for the recent acquisitions of Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies; the company raising its organic revenue growth forecast for 2014 to at least 30%, versus a previous forecast of at least 25%; and the company updating its long-term operating model, which included raising its long-term annual organic revenue growth projection to at least 25%, versus the company’s previous projection of 20%. Product revenue in the second quarter increased by 70% to $154.1 million, as compared to $90.4 million for the same period last year. Within product revenue, system revenue increased by 108% in the second quarter over the same period last year, driven in large part by MakerBot’s impressive contribution to the quarter. System revenue growth, excluding MakerBot products, was impressive, growing by 51% over the last year. This included strong growth for all our 3D printing lines, driven by their ongoing adoption for a broad range of applications from prototypes to DDM. A few notable area…

Shane Glenn

Management

Thank you, Erez. To reflect our improved outlook for 2014, as well as the recently closed acquisitions of Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies, Stratasys updated the following information regarding the company’s projected revenue and net income for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2014. Revenue guidance was increased to $750 million to $770 million versus previous guidance of $660 million to $680 million. The increase in revenue guidance includes $35 million to $40 million in revenue attributable to the recent acquisitions of Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies with the balance related to our improved outlook. Non-GAAP net income guidance was increased to $117 million to $122 million, or $2.25 to $2.35 per diluted share versus previous guidance of $113 million to $119 million, or $2.15 to $2.25 per diluted share. The acquisitions of Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies are expected to be modestly accretive to Stratasys’ non-GAAP earnings per share in 2014. The company expects organic sales growth, excluding acquisitions, of at least 30% in 2014 over 2013, an increase over the previous guidance of at least 25% growth. GAAP financial guidance is not being provided at this time given that the initial accounting for the business combination of Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies is incomplete. This makes the supplemental information required to calculate GAAP earnings unavailable. GAAP financial guidance will be calculated and communicated upon the completion of that analysis. Stratasys provided the following additional information regarding the company’s performance and strategic plans for 2014. Operating expenses are projected to expand materially in 2014 compared to 2013, driven by significant investments to support MakerBot product development and sales expansion, other investments in sales and marketing to drive future market adoption, and increased R&D investments to fund technology innovation and new product development. Growth in operating expenses in the second half of 2014 will include significant investments to support the integration and alignment of the recent acquisitions of Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies. We also expect significant non-recurring integration cost related to the Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies integration. Capital expenditures are projected at $50 million to $70 million, which include significant investments in manufacturing capacity in anticipation and support of future growth. Additionally, Stratasys updated the following information regarding the company’s long-term operating model; annual organic revenue growth of at least 25% versus the previous projection of at least 20%; non-GAAP operating income, as a percentage of sales, of 18% to 23%, versus the previous projection of 20% to 25%; non-GAAP effective tax rate of 10% to 15% versus the previous projection of 15% to 20%; and non-GAAP net income, as a percent of sales, projection remains unchanged at 16% to 21%. Now, I’d like to turn the call back over to David Reis, who will provide you with a more detailed strategic overview. David.

David Reis

Management

Thank you, Shane. We are extremely pleased with our second quarter results. We begin the second half of the year with significant positive momentum, as our markets continue in their rapid growth. According to the 2014 Wohlers Report, revenue for additive manufacturing products and services in 2013 grew by 35% to approximately $3 billion. Wohlers projects that the markets will more than quadruple by 2018, to $12.5 billion, and then will exceed $21 billion by 2020. Additive manufacturing and 3D printing solutions are disrupting enterprise processes, and empowering the creativity and innovation of individuals around the globe, by changing or enhancing many traditional product development and manufacturing processes. Opportunities are developing rapidly, and we are focused on investing in projects that support our core strategic imperatives. These include; leadership in prototyping, the continued expansion into direct digital manufacturing, the introduction of new niche vertical applications, the acceleration of new solutions to markets, improvements in 3D printing accessibility, and improvements in customer intimacy. Our strategy has always been to pursue leadership in every area in which we operate, execute our growth strategies to deliver shareholder value, and invest aggressively to capture future growth. We remain focused on those objectives. I would like to take a moment to highlight the completion of our acquisitions of Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies, and the opportunities we see developing from these exciting acquisitions. With both transactions now closed, we will begin the process of combining the companies with RedEye, our existing parts services business, to establish a leading strategic platform focused on our - to meet our customers’ additive manufacturing needs. We have an integration team composed of leaders from Stratasys, RedEye, Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies, that has been working hard on integration planning since we announced the acquisitions. The integration will be an…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Please stand-by for your first question, which comes from the line of John Baliotti of Janney Capital. Please proceed.

John Baliotti - Janney Capital

Analyst

Good morning. David and Erez, you discussed before and today the focus -- strategic investments and your core growth clearly proves that that’s working. You also communicated higher costs associated with these investments, but if you look at the quarter, it seems your costs, as a percent of sales, were down and your working capital turns improved with respect to not only last quarter but last year. So, it seems the investments while higher are more efficient, and I was just curious, is that a reflection of better feedback with customers or a more rigorous process, because it seems like you're getting a lot better traction even just two quarters into this higher investment spend?

Erez Simha

Management

John, it’s Erez. Hi, good morning. I think it’s really difficult to pinpoint what exactly is behind it. I would say I think we put our hand in the right place and we invested in the right places, and obviously you can see the results now. And I can tell you that also in H2, we will continue to invest or accelerate investment in channel, in the series, and specific R&D projects because we believe that we can grow faster than we planned.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Troy Jensen from Piper. Please go ahead.

Troy Jensen - Piper Jaffray

Analyst

How about starting with Erez here, I know 2014 was an investment year, but I’d be curious to know if you are expecting operating margin expansion in 2015 or when do you think we could get to this 18% to 22% target that you guys are showing us?

Erez Simha

Management

First, 2014, I think the second half of the year will be a little bit stronger than H1. We will gain some operating leverage in H2 compared to H1 due to the fact of relatively higher business, and the way we try to invest but not in the pace that revenue is going. I think that we will gain some operating leverage in 2015. I cannot say now how much it will be and what the range will be. We didn’t started yet to discuss 2015, but obviously the size of business which we have today, we will move forward with operating leverage. It’s a lot around the MakerBot business model. It would take us another three to four to five quarters to create an efficient business model that also can contribute to the business model of the company, and of course, the new companies that we acquired just now, Solid Concepts and Harvest, which by definition have lower operating margin, and also I think the right investment and the right synergies, it would take us another three to four quarters to gain those synergies.

Troy Jensen - Piper Jaffray

Analyst

Maybe a follow up for you Erez, your biggest competitor reports sales into channel inventory, I’m just curious how much that would be for you guys or if you’ve been aided recently by channel inventory growth?

Erez Simha

Management

Of course, we have a very, very strict policy here in determining. We take it very closely. Actually, we do not allow our channels or we do not see it as a business where inventory is going above certain limit. I would say that this quarter as well as previous quarters, 2% to 3% of our revenue were in the channel. I think this is the minimum amount of inventory that is needed for them to run the business efficiently.

David Reis

Management

It’s being followed, Troy, by channel, by territory, and we are extremely strict in this respect. So, we have no excess inventories whatsoever into channel.

Erez Simha

Management

It’s not an issue.

David Reis

Management

Not an issue.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Steve Milunovich of UBS. Please proceed.

Peter Christiansen - UBS

Analyst

Hi, this is Peter Christiansen in for Steve. Great quarter, guys. I think this is one of the first times you’ve called out success or strong traction with the Mojo and the uPrint series. Can you give us a sense of whether this is customers upgrading to more capable or higher-end devices, or these entirely new 3D printing customers?

Erez Simha

Management

We are not breaking down the growth between the different specific product lines. We’re talking about the families. And like it was said few times during the presentation, we are experiencing growth in any areas that we are active in, okay. So, again without getting to the details, which are kind of confidential information, growth is across the board in anything we do.

Peter Christiansen - UBS

Analyst

And then, just following upon the earlier question on the channel versus the sell-through, it seems like sell-through at least for some of the new MakerBot products looks pretty robust, have there been any supply constraints in meeting that demand?

Erez Simha

Management

No, not at all, no.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Samuel Eisner, Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.

Samuel Eisner - Goldman Sachs

Analyst

Just regarding the closing of the acquisitions of Solid Concepts and Harvest, I was wondering if you can give an update on the pre-financing of those two, I believe you were able to use some combination of cash and stock, so I just wanted to understand if there’s any dilutive impact going forward?

David Reis

Management

Both of those transactions were closed. We closed -- on Solid Concepts; we announced that we closed it in the middle of July. A week later, we closed also Harvest. We won’t be providing any additional segmentation beyond the guidance that we provided. We do project that transaction will be modestly accretive in 2014. I think it’s important to mention that we have our intention to, of course, to blend the team that we have in place to accelerate the integration of the three service businesses into one; the RedEye, the Solid Concepts and Harvest, and we will be investing significantly in the coming months to accomplish that goal and to leverage the synergies that we believe that we can leverage out of those businesses together with the core business of Stratasys.

Samuel Eisner - Goldman Sachs

Analyst

And then, just perhaps a follow up on margins here, you did bring down your long-term expectations for operating margins, just curious what has been baked into that, are you assuming any synergies that you just mentioned regarding the service bureau transactions? Just any additional data that you can provide on that would be helpful.

Erez Simha

Management

:

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Paul Coster from JPMorgan. Please proceed.

Paul Coster - JPMorgan

Analyst

You’ve raised your long-term growth expectation by 500 basis points. Can you just sort of give us some sense of what you mean by long term? I’m more interested in what you saw internally that might have made you feel confident in raising your growth expectations. Thank you.

David Reis

Management

Good morning, Paul, it’s David. First of all, the model is reflecting our estimates for the three to five years going forward. The reason we raised the projection is because we really feel, as I said earlier, increased demand, additional applications that we think will have great fit to across the board, across all territories and across all product lines. So we gained more confidence, observing what took place over the last two, three quarters, and therefore we are confident in raising the guidance. It’s really the market is moving, it’s moving fast and we are very equipped to tackle it. So this is the reason.

Paul Coster - JPMorgan

Analyst

And then, your point about no excess inventory as it relates to MakerBot, but perhaps can you tell us to what extend you expect the growth to be fueled by continued channel expansion and international expansion over next year or two versus organic growth, is it like a 50/50 split, for instance?

David Reis

Management

So, again I just want to make sure we are absolutely clear. When we say we have no excess inventory, it’s including all product lines, not only MakerBot, including also Stratasys’ core, Erez said early, it’s being controlled extremely close, and we are operating with an absolute minimum operational inventory. It has to be in the channel and it’s very small numbers. This is one. With respect to the channel expansion, we will need, in order to achieve the goals that we discussed earlier, we need to expand our channel. Our first priority is to grow the current channel and we are doing a lot of work in channel enablement and channel growth and channel investment. Nevertheless, this will require adding some channels, mainly in vertical applications and in places where we don’t have enough coverage today, so it’s a combination of both, mainly growing the current channel, but fixing coverage issues in niche applications or vertical applications that we don’t have coverage.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Amit Daryanani of RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Amit Daryanani - RBC Capital Markets

Analyst

Two questions. One, I think Erez already mentioned that margins, ex-MakerBot, would be up year-over-year. I was curious was that comment more on operating margins essentially the 500 basis points drag you have on op margins is all MakerBot driven or was that a gross margin comment?

Erez Simha

Management

It was mainly for the operating margin of MakerBot. I think that it will take us time to build, to create, and to leverage the synergies of MakerBot being part of Stratasys, and build a system around back-office in order to increase the operating margin at MakerBot.

Amit Daryanani - RBC Capital Markets

Analyst

And then, I guess, just a follow up, you’ve had some tax benefits for two quarters in a row now, I’m curious in the updated EPS guide, what sort of tax rate are you embedding there?

Erez Simha

Management

We provided the net income and margin, and I think that the effective tax rate that we expect for the entire year in the higher part of our long-term model, meaning 10% to 15%, closer to 15%, and I think that H1 do not represent the effective tax rate for the long term for the company. Our tax rate is affected by actually the taxable income based on the region that taxable was generated, and I think for entire 2014, at least for your model, you should use the 10% to 15%, closer to 15% for tax rate.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Sherri Scribner of Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Sherri Scribner - Deutsche Bank

Analyst

Just looking at the change in the guidance for the full year, when you think about the organic versus the total guidance that you provided, there is about a $100 million delta, which I assume is related to the acquisitions of Solid Concepts and Harvest, I just wanted to get a sense of is that the right type of number to think about for those acquisitions, or is there anything else in that number? And then also what types of growth rates do you expect that business to grow at? The RedEye business grew about 9% this quarter, would you expect Harvest and Solid Concepts to grow higher than the corporate average or lower somewhere in the middle? Thanks.

Erez Simha

Management

Sherri, good morning, it’s Erez. We provided the information in the script I think. If you take the midpoint, the business, around $90 million, $35 million to $40 million is a result of the acquisition of Solid Concepts and Harvest and the rest is part of the organic growth that we expect. Now, by definition those services are growing slower than the core organic growth of Stratasys, but we do believe that putting the right plan in place, we will be able to generate higher growth rate compared to today’s growth rate of our entire business. I also think that RedEye H1 growth rates does not represent the ongoing or long-term growth rate for RedEye, which we believe - I think that H2 will show high growth rates for RedEye.

Sherri Scribner - Deutsche Bank

Analyst

I just wanted to get an update on your thoughts about seasonality with the MakerBot business, what type of seasonality would you expect for the back half of the year, would you expect 4Q to be substantially up from 3Q? Just trying to get some ballpark. Thanks.

Erez Simha

Management

So, usually not only for MakerBot, I think for the entire business, Q3 is usually slower than Q4. And it’s vacation time in Europe, almost nothing happened. It’s vacation time in the U.S. I think it’s vacation in schools. So, I think that looking at H2, it will be again back-loaded both for revenue and EPS, and I think if you look back in previous years, Q3 and Q2 were not so different in terms of revenue.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your question. Your next question comes from the line of Jason North from Jefferies. Please proceed.

Jason North - Jefferies

Analyst

Stratasys is doing really well in terms of prototyping and also in terms of tooling in the area of manufacturing. What are your longer-term thoughts here? How are you going to address the mass manufacturing in terms of end products rather than just prototyping and tooling? Thanks.

David Reis

Management

First of all, I agree with the statements, and we are doing very well in both areas, both prototyping and manufacturing. On the manufacturing space, those technologies, our main technologies, FDM and PolyJet, have very great good applications also in the end-use parts section of the manufacturing market. We have more than a few quite a lot of customers which today are manufacturing end-use parts plastic-based, mainly with FDM technology, but also with PolyJet for the manufacturing of end-use part and we expect this phenomena to continue to grow. It’s growing constantly. It’s relatively a longer-term process, but we have the right technologies and it’s progressing well.

Jason North - Jefferies

Analyst

And then, in terms of looking at the gross margin impact for Solid Concepts and Harvest relative to your -- what had been your services GM?

Erez Simha

Management

Can you please repeat the question?

Jason North - Jefferies

Analyst

How will Solid Concepts and Harvest impact your services gross margin in the back half of the year? Thanks.

Erez Simha

Management

They came a little bit below our services gross margin in the book of business. The business volume is higher than the current services that we have, so we clearly have the impact on the gross margin.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Ken Wong, Citigroup. Please proceed.

Ken Wong - Citigroup

Analyst

In regards to the current situation in Israel, have you guys seen any impact to demand or your production capabilities?

David Reis

Management

Good morning, it’s David. No, despite the tension along this area of the world, we basically, in Israel, business was as usual. We didn’t see any slowdown in manufacturing, development activity. And I just want to mention that we are a global company. A relatively small part of our business today is in Israel, and it did not impact Stratasys as a whole whatsoever.

Ken Wong - Citigroup

Analyst

And then, just a quick follow up on the recent question about the gross margins of Solid Concepts and Harvest, and you guys talked up some synergies as you bring these businesses together, I mean would you imagine that the gross margins overall, those two would trend up towards your current services gross margins over time?

David Reis

Management

It’s a little bit difficult to estimate today. We mentioned before we have two steps in the process. One of them is, first of all, to integrate the three service groups into one company which we started as soon as we closed the transactions. I expect this by definition to create some synergies which should improve gross margins. Later on, when we’ve integrated them into the overall Stratasys, we think we’ll get some more benefits. I think it’s a little bit too early to estimate how good it’s going to be.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Jonathan Shaffer of Credit Suisse. Please proceed.

Jonathan Shaffer - Credit Suisse

Analyst

I was just wondering if you could comment on the Z18 impact on the quarter. I know it came out and started shipping pretty late in June, and this is arguably the most transformational new offering. I was just wondering if you could talk about A, the impact in the quarter, and then B, how you see that playing out for the rest of the year?

Erez Simha

Management

Good morning, Jonathan, it’s Erez. It’s hardly had any significant impact on the quarter. We started to ship it relatively late. However, we saw very nice bookings on Z18. It is still too early to measure any trends in this product line.

Jonathan Shaffer - Credit Suisse

Analyst

And then, just as a follow up, it seemed like Florida Polytechnic was a major order of over 50 MakerBots, I was wondering if you are seeing kind of any increased inquiries around large scale orders in the MakerBot line specifically?

David Reis

Management

Part of the MakerBot offer today is, what we call, Bot Farms, which is a large number of printers which are connected together and creating innovation centers in universities and colleges across the U.S. and other places around the world. It’s a new offering, but I expect it to accelerate in demand in the coming quarters and years. It’s a very nice and very attractive concept for such institutes.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Ananda Baruah, Brean Capital. Please proceed. Ananda Baruah - Brean Capital: Two questions. I guess the first is with regards to applications and manufacturing, David; can you give us a sense of which ones you are seeing begin to accelerate? Which ones you think hold the most promise?

David Reis

Management

Again, like I said in my presentation, we are seeing a lot of progress in what we call augmented manufacturing, which is a great potential. We’re talking about many, many manufacturing plants around the world that have the use for jigs, fixtures, guides, and no doubt that Stratasys has the best technology in order to assist those manufacturing plants to improve their processes, so we see great growth there. And we see more than a few end-use parts applications, mainly in aerospace, in the auto industry, which are developing. So, again in those segments we see growth. Again, the most - maybe significant are the applications in aerospace.

Ananda Baruah - Brean Capital

Analyst

And then, can you update us quickly on the competitive environment? You mentioned you think the market environment remains pretty robust, how you view the competitive environment today, and I guess what are your thoughts with regards to share gains out of that environment? Thanks.

David Reis

Management

Again, we presented our organic growth numbers. I don’t think something dramatically changing in the competitive environment. We are doing very well. We are growing very significantly. I don’t see any dramatic changes in the competitive environment at this point of time.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your question. Your next question comes from the line of Rob Stone, Cowen & Company. Please proceed. Rob Stone - Cowen & Company: I wanted to ask a strategic question about the new services businesses. How do you think about the opportunity in secondary (technical difficulty) like CNC and mold-making (technical difficulty) further (technical difficulty) manufacturing?

David Reis

Management

Can you repeat the question? Sorry, you were cut off. Rob Stone - Cowen & Company: In the services businesses that you just acquired, how do you think about the opportunity in secondary services like CNC machining and mold making as well as further expansion into metal parts manufacturing in possibly new locations? Thanks.

David Reis

Management

You asked really three questions in one. So, I’ll start maybe from the first one. When we acquired both Solid Concepts and Harvest, we said one of the reasons we chose those companies after much detailed analysis is the fact that those companies together with RedEye are mostly focused on additive manufacturing and not traditional manufacturing processes. So our focus is additive manufacturing and although we have some traditional manufacturing within this organization, this is not the focus, and we intend mainly to grow our additive manufacturing activity. In respect to your, I think, third question regarding a global expansion, today our service bureau activities mainly focus in the U.S., but we will continue in the future to expand it globally. The other question, [indiscernible] I can’t remember what it was, sorry. Rob Stone - Cowen & Company: Quick follow up is on dental which you mentioned as a strategic vertical. How do you think you are positioned in terms of share there and is there potential growth from share gain or just growing the application vertical? Thanks.

David Reis

Management

I think the dental is vertically growing, and we are growing with this growth pattern. We have good solution for some of the application in dental, not all of them. We are extending our applications as we go. Regarding our market share, our gain of market share, I’m not sure I have a very clear answer about it.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Bobby Burleson of Canaccord. Please go ahead.

Bobby Burleson - Canaccord

Analyst

This one is for David. Stratasys has hired a new VP of Strategic Accounts and you're doing a top-down kind of ROI analysis for some global manufacturing customers, et cetera. How does Solid Concepts help play into that? And given the decent number of SLA machines they have, how are you guys making sure that those conversations kind of look at the technologies that are available kind of agnostically?

David Reis

Management

Strategy in this respect is really customer focused, and what you observed in the last few years that our customers are approaching us, asking to give them a full solution for the additive manufacturing needs, and we believe today with our ability or the combination of offering both a hardware, consumables, professional servicing and consulting, end-parts together is what is required by our customers, and what we did in the past few years and we are doing very good progress in this respect is structuring our own operations to fit this customer need. The service bureau activity specifically is a great fit into it, because if you look on our large customers, they have sometime requirements for hardware, sometimes for parts, sometimes for consulting or any combination of the above, so basically we’re structuring ourselves in order to serve the customer better, and then the service bureau is part of this concept.

Bobby Burleson - Canaccord

Analyst

And then a quick follow up. Speaking of kind of synergies across technologies, hardware and software, I think FISHER/UNITECH was saying at one point that their SolidWorks sales now, 50% of those include a printer, 3D printer. And I'm wondering if there's any update or kind of updated thoughts at least around what that penetration rate/attach rate is for 3D CAD users and 3D printers especially now that MakerBot is getting a lot of traction? Thanks.

David Reis

Management

Unfortunately I don’t have an answer, but I’d be more than happy to research and come back to you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your questions, ladies and gentlemen. I would now like to turn the call over to David Reis for closing remarks.

David Reis

Management

Thank you for joining us for this call. Thank you very much.