Proto Labs, Inc. (NYSE:PRLB) shares are trading higher after it reported first-quarter FY24 revenue growth of 1.6% Y/Y to $127.89 million, beating the consensus of $124.68 million.

Protolabs Network revenue increased 38.9% Y/Y to $23.9 million in the quarter.

Adjusted gross margin expanded to 45.6% from 43.4% for the quarter.

Adjusted operating income increased to $12.1 million (from $9.0 million a year ago), and the margin was 9.5%, up from 7.2% a year ago.

Adjusted EBITDA increased to $20.2 million (15.8% of revenue) from $17.8 million (14.1% of revenue) a year ago.

The digital manufacturing company posted an adjusted EPS of $0.40, an improvement from $0.30 Y/Y, beating the consensus of $0.31.

Protolabs' cash flow from operations for the quarter totaled $21.3 million, and the cash and investments balance was $112.9 million as of March-end.

Dan Schumacher, Chief Financial Officer, said, "Our results were driven by increased order growth relative to the beginning of the year as well as strong performance in our higher-margin Factory business. We remain committed to returning capital to shareholders as we repurchased $16.0 million of common stock in the quarter, equivalent to 85% of free cash flow."

Q2 Outlook: Protolabs expects to generate revenue between $122 million-$130 million versus $128.26 million consensus and sees adjusted EPS of $0.30-$0.38 versus $0.39 consensus.

Investors can gain exposure to the stock via 3D Printing (The) ETF (BATS:PRNT) and Pacer BlueStar Engineering The Future ETF (NASDAQ:BULD).

Price Action: PRLB shares are trading higher by 5.59% at $32.88 at the last check Friday.