Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires New Stake in Proto Labs, Inc. $PRLB

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of Proto Labs, Inc. (NYSE:PRLB) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 10,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $599,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Group One Trading LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Proto Labs in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Proto Labs by 7,380.0% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 748 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 738 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Proto Labs during the fourth quarter worth about $46,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Proto Labs in the fourth quarter valued at about $57,000. Finally, Aquatic Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Proto Labs in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $64,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.54% of the company’s stock.

Proto Labs Trading Down 3.5%

Shares of Proto Labs stock opened at $74.41 on Wednesday. Proto Labs, Inc. has a 12-month low of $38.48 and a 12-month high of $83.15. The stock has a market cap of $1.77 billion, a PE ratio of 70.19 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a 50-day moving average of $74.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.78.

Proto Labs (NYSE:PRLB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $139.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $135.31 million. Proto Labs had a return on equity of 4.15% and a net margin of 4.71%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.33 EPS. Proto Labs has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.500-0.580 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Proto Labs, Inc. will post 1.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Sven Wehrwein sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.28, for a total value of $154,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 32,505 shares in the company, valued at $2,511,986.40. This trade represents a 5.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Michael R. Kenison sold 16,030 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.49, for a total transaction of $1,113,924.70. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 18,683 shares in the company, valued at $1,298,281.67. This represents a 46.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 25,663 shares of company stock worth $1,804,727. 1.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on PRLB. Zacks Research cut Proto Labs from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 3rd. Weiss Ratings downgraded Proto Labs from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Benchmark upped their price objective on Proto Labs from $70.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Proto Labs from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.33.

Proto Labs Company Profile

Proto Labs, Inc is a digital manufacturing company that offers on-demand production services for custom parts and prototypes. Utilizing technologies such as 3D printing (additive manufacturing), CNC machining and injection molding, the company transforms digital CAD designs into functional parts on accelerated timelines. Its platform-driven process combines automated quoting, rapid tool generation and manufacturing execution to serve product developers, engineers and small- to medium-sized production runs.

Founded in 1999 by Larry Lukis, Proto Labs has championed the application of digital workflows to traditional manufacturing methods.