Stratasys Q3: parts and services outgrow hardware as aerospace and defence rise 35%

Stratasys reported third-quarter non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.04, double the year before, on revenue growth of about 4 percent. Aerospace and defence grew 35 percent year on year, and the parts service Stratasys Direct Manufacturing grew about 10 percent. The company nonetheless trimmed its 2026 revenue guidance because larger production orders take longer to close.

What did Stratasys report for Q3 2026?

Non-GAAP EPS reached $0.04 against $0.02 in Q3 2025, with revenue up about 4 percent. Systems revenue grew 12 percent, the largest single driver, while services grew 6 percent. 3D Systems, by comparison, posted a higher loss than in Q2, though its parts manufacturing sales contributed to revenue growth.

Why was guidance lowered?

New 2026 revenue guidance is $556 million to $561 million, down from $565 million to $575 million. CFO Eitan Zamir tied this to a shift towards larger, production-focused orders, which bring longer sales cycles and less predictable timing. The company says pipeline interest remains strong.

What role does Stratasys Direct Manufacturing play?

SDM brought in around $15 million, next to about $30 million from customer support, and grew roughly 10 percent. CEO Yoav Zeif said aerospace and defence is the main growth driver, and that customers often start printing at SDM before moving production onto their own machines. The new F3300 system gave one customer three times the output of earlier systems on an expedited order, and the part order backlog is the highest ever across all technologies.

How does utilisation shape the picture?

Zeif named GM as a top customer for production utilisation, citing $10 million in annual savings and production tooling response times about four times faster. He also said growth in production use cases exceeds the decline in rapid prototyping, which is why annual growth expectations versus 2025 stay in place.

What it means

For European manufacturers, the quarter underlines that growth sits where machines run at high utilisation, not where hardware is bought ahead of need. Buying capacity from a service bureau such as SDM can bridge demand peaks without committing capex, which suits firms with uncertain volumes. Parts already qualified on a vendor's systems carry weight in this shift. Longer sales cycles for production orders also suggest realistic timelines for a business case are measured in quarters, not weeks.

Frequently asked questions

How much did Stratasys aerospace and defence revenue grow?

It grew 35 percent year on year and 25 percent sequentially, according to CEO Yoav Zeif on the earnings call.

What is Stratasys' new 2026 revenue guidance?

$556 million to $561 million, down from the earlier range of $565 million to $575 million, because of longer and less predictable sales cycles for larger production orders.

Which unit is growing fastest within services?

Stratasys Direct Manufacturing grew about 10 percent to around $15 million in revenue, helped by the F3300 system and aerospace and defence demand.