Is the business good?
How good a business is PRLB?
Proto Labs, Inc. earns 5.3% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so growth costs more than it returns.
5.3%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 3.7 points below what the capital costs: growth destroys value
- Operating margin
- 6.6%
Operating margin · Metal Fabrication median 11% · 12 months to Q2 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.86×
Cash conversion · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- Share count, year on year
- +1.3%
Share count, year on year · shareholders own a smaller slice than a year ago
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 14% |
| FY2021 | 8.3% |
| FY2022 | −20% |
| FY2023 | 5.6% |
| FY2024 | 4.0% |
| FY2025 | 4.7% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 45%
- Operating margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 6.6%
- Net margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 5.4%
- Free cash flow margin
- 10%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 7.6%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $561M
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $57M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $30M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 5.3%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.