Greetings, and welcome to the Stratasys third quarter 2021 conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. The question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Yonah Lloyd, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss our 2021 third quarter financial results. On the call with us today are our Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Yoav Zeif, and our Chief Financial Officer, Lilach Payorski. I. remind you that access to today's call, including the 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 relations section of our website. Please note that some of the information you will hear during our discussion today will consist of forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding our expectations as to our future revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, taxes, and other future financial performance, and our expectations for our business outlook.
All statements that speak to future performance, events, expectations, or results are forward-looking statements. Actual results or trends could differ materially from our forecast. For risks that could cause actual results to be materially different from those set forth in forward-looking statements, please refer to the risk factors discussed or referenced in Stratasys' annual report on Form 20-F for the 2020 year, which we filed with the SEC on March 1, 2021. Please also refer to our operating and financial review and prospects for the third quarter of 2021, as well as the press release that announces our earnings for the third quarter of 2021, which were attached as exhibits to two separate reports on Form 6-K that we're furnishing to the SEC today.
In order to obtain updated information throughout the year concerning our quarterly results of operations and the risks and other factors that most impact those results, please see the quarterly earnings press releases and our quarterly operating and financial review and prospects, each of which are attached as exhibits to reports on Form 6-K that we furnish to the SEC on a quarterly basis over the course of the year. Stratasys assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information which speak as of their respective dates. As in previous quarters, today's call will include GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. The non-GAAP financial measures should be read in combination with our GAAP metrics to evaluate our performance. Non-GAAP to GAAP reconciliations are provided in tables in our slide presentation and today's press release. Now, I would like to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Yoav Zeif.
Yoav?
Thank you, Yonah. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, additive manufacturing and Stratasys are at an inflection point. Industries around the world better understand the benefits and are increasingly adding 3D printing to their production plans. This is thanks to a number of improvements, such as increased throughput capacity, a growing range of high-performance materials, and consistent part quality. Additionally, there are compelling economic and sustainability advantages and software workflow solutions that can support the shift from prototyping to manufacturing that is happening across industries. Parts can be lighter, equally strong, less expensive, and personalized. When considering the supply chain challenges in the world today, our customers are increasingly looking to flexible, distributed additive manufacturing to overcome the logistics disruptions we are witnessing around the globe.
In short, additive manufacturing is now viable for production of a wide range of end-use parts at volume scale for global distribution. The investments we are making at Stratasys, along with the strategic initiatives we have undertaken, are steadily driving revenue growth. Just over a year ago, I laid out our strategy to become the first choice for polymer 3D printing with a focus on the biggest addressable market, manufacturing. This quarter, we truly accelerated execution of our strategy. We signed large-scale deals for manufacturing systems. We completed our acquisition of Xaar 3D, and we expected to see incremental upside as we prepare to launch two new mass production offerings, the Origin One and the H350. I will now walk you through the highlights of the quarter and some exciting recent achievements. Lilach will then provide financial details for the quarter and give an update on our outlook.
The third quarter delivered revenue growth in all business lines and regions. Results were highlighted by top line improvement of 24% year-over-year. This was driven by growth of approximately 35% in systems and 27% in consumables. Our Stratasys Direct Service Bureau is not yet at 2019 levels, but was up over 25% from Q3 last year and is expected to continue growing. Importantly, system sales grew nearly 7% over Q3 of 2019, thanks in part to our manufacturing-focused system. System sales typically lead to increased consumables and services that generate profitable revenue as customer ramp up their utilization. One of the many highlights of the quarter was our participation at the annual RAPID + TCT trade show, where I was honored to deliver the opening address.
We secured significantly more leads than the 2019 event, even though there were less people at the show this year, with especially strong interest for our Origin system. In less than two weeks, we will be attending Formnext, our industry's largest trade show, where we look forward to sharing more of our exciting new innovations across our portfolio of systems, materials, and our open software platform. During the quarter, our focus on manufacturing gained additional traction as we signed two major end-use part manufacturing wins. The U.S. Navy will purchase up to 25 F900 systems, materials and support services over five years for a total consideration of $20 million. The F900 is our largest FDM system, featuring the widest range of premium materials. We believe this is the biggest government additive manufacturing deal of its kind.
This purchase advances the U.S. Department of Defense's stated strategy for increasing its use of additive manufacturing. It allows the Navy to produce mission-critical parts closer to their point of need and demonstrates the ability to use distributed manufacturing with digital inventory and global deployment. The system will be used for producing end-use parts, tooling and training aids, and will be part of the Navy's aircraft maintenance program. The second major contract, also for multiple F900 systems, is a repeat purchase from a leading global brand name OEM. It is also a USD multi-million, multi-year award, and we expect to share more details at a later date. These two notable manufacturing awards demonstrate our outstanding reputation for excellence in both technology and service. Just as importantly, it shows the continuing deep penetration by Stratasys with leading manufacturers that are turning to our technology for true production of end-use parts.
We believe there are many similar opportunities for scaled additive manufacturing being considered across industries worldwide. To further strengthen our manufacturing focus, we acquired the remaining 55% share of Xaar 3D, giving us complete management of SAF product development. SAF technology is a major leap forward for powder bed manufacturing and is a significant improvement over other powder bed systems. We are excited to welcome the Xaar 3D teams to Stratasys. We have already deployed H350 system at beta sites, including service bureaus. The feedback from our customer has been outstanding, with this early installation already printing end use parts at volume scale. The H350 can also print many of its own parts, enabling more efficient production capacity support. Healthcare has been an increasing growth driver and has grown faster than any other end market for us over the past two years.
3D printing brings key benefits such as personalization for medical needs and mass customization for dental applications. During the quarter, we furthered our expansion into dental, particularly through strong sales of our new J5 DentaJet system. We continue to add new customers to our install base as they appreciate our unique advanced features, such as the ability to print a mix of parts on a single tray with unattended operation. On the medical side, our journey towards making our technology accessible at point of care started with the launch of our J5 MediJet system last quarter, and we continue to expand our reach through partnerships. For example, we recently started working with Ricoh 3D to provide anatomical models at the point of care for hospitals across the U.S. with the help of integrated IBM Watson Health technology. This collaboration helps clinicians see inside anatomy for greater visibility into patient needs.
It offers both clinical and economic benefits, reducing barriers to entry that healthcare providers can encounter when setting up a 3D printing facility. Stratasys J750 Digital Anatomy and J5 MediJet printers create lifelike anatomical models. These reflect the pathologies of the patient and can be physically manipulated like human tissue. Hospitals can use our HIPAA-compliant, state-of-the-art technology on-site or through an on-demand part service. They can deliver more personalized care through better surgical preparation and patient education, and can also improve medical training. We have a similar agreement in Europe with Bone 3D to provide hospitals with on-site access to 3D printing through their OsteoFactory project. Our Stratasys Direct business recently added anatomical modeling to its services with our J750 Digital Anatomy printers. Demand by medical device manufacturers and healthcare providers has been strong, with well over 1,000 models already printed.
The opportunities in healthcare will continue to expand, and we are often reminded how our advances touch and change people's lives. A few months ago, one-year-old twin girls who were conjoined at the back of their heads underwent a successful operation to separate them. Stratasys technology was used extensively, preparing both the medical team and the families with pre-surgical modeling to help ensure the positive outcome and reduce the time of the operation. We continue to develop other exciting healthcare use cases that we believe will have a significant impact and look forward to sharing more in the future. I would now like to update you on our software initiative. We have been actively developing our software solution with several exciting milestones in the past few months.
We introduced a new data security solution called ProtectAM to enhance cybersecurity of additive manufacturing as its role in government and defense applications grew larger and more essential. This solution is the first in additive manufacturing to work with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the world's leading enterprise Linux platform and the platform preferred by the U.S. government. This is a great example of being tuned in to a specific vertical's needs, in this case, the U.S. government, and tailoring our solutions accordingly. We also recently announced the GrabCAD additive manufacturing platform. The world is increasingly turning to software to help scale additive manufacturing. In a recent report, research firm SmarTech Analysis forecasted that the total global additive manufacturing software market will reach $3.3 billion by 2026, up from less than $500 million in 2020.. We believe Stratasys can be a catalyst for this growth. Our new platform provides us with the opportunity to strengthen our leadership position in the additive manufacturing industry through this growing addressable market for a number of reasons. First, we are able to leverage our deep additive manufacturing expertise and existing relationship with many of the world's leading manufacturers. Second, we build our platform to be the best solution in the industry. It is enterprise-ready with the capability to integrate the entire digital thread from design to manufacturing. Third, it is also open. We are open to a broad set of additive manufacturing partner applications, giving our customers the freedom to use a wide range of software applications to our GrabCAD SDKs. Yes, we are open to integration with many non-Stratasys 3D printers.
Leading manufacturers tell us they want Stratasys to be their primary additive platform for Industry 4.0, recognizing our leadership position and open approach. As a result, we anticipate software will be an increasing part of our revenues and profit stream, driven by recurring software license subscriptions and SDK licenses from partners and customers. It's a key part of our overall rapid growth plan for our manufacturing business. Finally, in the area of software design, we recently announced a collaboration with Adobe to make full-color 3D printing easy and accessible for their large user base of Adobe Substance 3D Painter with no third-party software or tools needed, which had previously been required. Our multiple competitive advantages, when coupled with our new product offerings, will further advance our position as the leading provider of polymer 3D printing solutions.
We have the broadest, most advanced polymer technology portfolio, a comprehensive enterprise-ready software platform to scale additive manufacturing for production, the leading global channel with over 200 partners, the largest team of engineers and customer support in our industry, and a proven, resilient business model designed to scale. We expect strong purchasing cycle to gain momentum as we bring new systems to market, generating increased consumables, service contracts, and software to drive recurring revenues and long-term profitability. I will now turn the call over to Lilach, who will share the financial results of the quarter. Lilach?
Thank you, Yoav, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased with the third quarter results that demonstrate our continued strength in our growing markets, while also generating operating profit and cash. The revenue growth, driven by 30.3% growth in our product sales, is indicative of the inflection point we are experiencing. For the quarter, total revenue was $159 million, up 24.3% versus the prior year quarter. We saw increased performance across all revenue streams. Particularly encouraging system growth of 6.7% over Q3 of 2019. Improvement in the pace of our consumable sales was another key contributor. There was also strong performance from our manufacturing business, in particular, improvement from automotive and industrials in Europe. Additionally, both the new RPS systems and our Stratasys Direct service bureau delivered more than originally expected.
I would also note that healthcare continues to be our fastest growing business, driven primarily by increasing dental opportunities. On a constant currency basis, total revenue grew 23.8% versus the third quarter last year. Product revenue grew 30.3% in the third quarter to $108.9 million, compared to the same period last year, or 29.7% on a constant currency basis. Within product revenue, system revenue grew 34.7% to $52.3 million, compared to the same period last year, and 34% on a constant currency basis. There was a particularly notable growth from our manufacturing systems like F900, F770, the F370, driven by the new carbon fiber material and the new J5 DentaJet.
The quarter also saw improved consumables utilization as revenue rose 26.6% to $56.6 million compared to the same period last year, and up 25.9% on a constant currency basis. Relative to the 2019 quarter, consumables were off by only 1.3%, showing a nearly complete reversal of the impact of the pandemic as our customers increased utilization of our system. Service revenue was $50.1 million, up 13% compared to the same period last year, and 12.8% on a constant currency basis. Within service revenue, customer support revenue increased over Q3 of 2020 by 7.2% to $29.5 million, flat on constant currency basis. Importantly, it was up 5.7% compared to Q3 of 2019.
Our Stratasys Direct service bureau also continues to rebound, up 25.4% over Q3 of 2020. These are good indications of market recovery trends. Turning to margins, GAAP gross margin was 42.9% for the quarter, compared to 38.9% for the same period last year. Non-GAAP gross margin was 48.2% for the quarter, compared to 46.8% for the same period last year. We are pleased to see the positive impact on margins of our product sales, both sequentially and relative to last year. We are carefully monitoring the ongoing macro issues of high global logistics cost and inflationary pricing of raw materials which have pressured margin. Our top priority is to deliver our product in a timely manner.
To help ensure this, we have increased production levels to offset sea and air delays in our planning process. We continue to evaluate a wide area of shipping options to ensure we can deliver goods with a minimal business impact. Given this situation, we expect gross margins for the fourth quarter to be similar to the third quarter. GAAP operating expenses were $90.1 million, a decrease of $364 million, or 80.2% compared to the same period last year, where we recorded goodwill impairment. GAAP operating expenses excluding goodwill impairment was 56.7% of revenue for the quarter, compared to 53.1% for the same period last year. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $74.9 million, an increase of $14 million or 23.1% for the quarter as compared to the same period last year.
Non-GAAP operating expenses improved to 47.1% of revenue for the quarter, compared to 47.6% for the same period last year, and 49% for the first half of this year. 2021 has been a year of investment in our growth, particularly with the cost associated to return to a 5-day work week and the acquisition of Origin and RPS. Together with strong increase in revenue, OpEx went up in dollar terms, but is lower as a percentage of revenue. From an earning perspective, GAAP operating loss for the quarter was $21.9 million, compared to a loss of $404.3 million for the same period last year. Non-GAAP operating income for the quarter was $1.8 million, compared to a loss of $1 million for the same period last year.
GAAP net loss for the quarter was $18.1 million, or $0.28 per diluted shares, compared to net loss of $405.1 million, or $7.35 per diluted shares for the same period last year. Non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $0.5 million, or $0.01 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $3 million, or $0.05 per diluted shares in the same period last year. We generate cash of $3 million from operation during the third quarter, as compared to generating $2.6 million of cash in the same quarter last year. This represents five consecutive quarters of positive cash flow from operation totaling $57.7 million, an excellent achievement considering broader economic conditions.
We ended the quarter with $519.9 million in cash equivalents and short-term deposits, compared to $522.7 million at the end of the second quarter of 2021. We are constantly reviewing opportunities that will accelerate our growth strategy and strengthen our go-to leadership position. Turning to our outlook for the fourth quarter. Based on current market conditions, and assuming that the impacts related to pandemic or global supply chain constraints do not impact the economic environment further, the company is reiterating and updating its outlook as follows. We expect Q4 revenue to be approximately 16% higher than Q4 of last year, driven by continued growth in systems relative to Q4 of both 2020 and 2019.
We expect our OpEx for 2021 to be approximately $36 million higher than 2020, due primarily to now fully owning Xaar 3D, in line with our investment strategy, along with higher operating costs relative to our higher revenues. As we have said throughout the year, we are in investment mode. One of our main differentiator is that our business model infrastructure is built to leverage as we scale, so the cost we are allocating today will drive increased revenue and profits in the future. We continue to expect our CapEx for all of 2021 to range between $24 million-$30 million. Stratasys is in healthy position. We are executing on our strategy, and our revenue are shifting from prototyping to manufacturing. This is expected to drive strong top-line growth with more favorable mix of sales across systems, material, software and services, enhancing profits in the coming years.
Our balance sheet, together with our resilient business model, will support the investment needed along the way. With that, let me turn the call back over to Yoav for closing remarks. Yoav?
Thank you, Lilach. Last month, Gartner predicted that by 2025, over 50% of all discrete manufacturers will be using 3D printers for the product they sell or service, up from 10% in 2019. That's why Stratasys is laser-focused on being the leader in polymer additive manufacturing as the industry continue to shift to additive manufacturing for end-use parts production. To achieve that mission, we now have solutions for every step in the product life cycle chain, design, prototyping, tooling, molds, all the way to end-use production at scale. There is no single comprehensive solution for every manufacturing application. Therefore, it is important to use the best technology for each specific manufacturing challenge. Manufacturers are also looking for efficiencies, where systems can be interfaced and networked with each other, as well as with their existing infrastructure.
Only Stratasys provides the full range of best-in-class technologies for polymer 3D printing, offering our customers the ability to choose the best fit for their applications. Our exceptional portfolio of hardware and materials, software platforms, and partnership ecosystem, together with industry-leading global expertise, sets us apart and allows our customers to achieve a powerful and efficient production environment. As I said earlier, Stratasys is truly at an inflection point, and we are quite excited for the coming years. The investment we are making, coupled with our fortress balance sheet, position us to build long-term value for all of our stakeholders. With that, let's open it up for questions. Operator?
Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question. One moment please, while we poll for your questions. Our first questions come from the line of Greg Palm with Craig-Hallum. Please proceed with your questions.
Great. Thanks for taking the questions, and congrats on the good results here.
Thank you.
I wanted to maybe start with the revenue guide. You know, it's a pretty specific number and, you know, a pretty uncertain environment. Maybe help us understand some of the assumptions behind that. Are you expecting that some of that contract with the U.S. Navy, that I think the first 8 of those were maybe expected to ship in Q4, so is that included? You know, just maybe a few assumptions behind the actual revenue guide would be helpful.
Hi. Good morning, Greg. Yes, I will be happy to share with you some of the assumptions that we have. First of all, you touched on the U.S. Navy. Yes, some of the U.S. Navy is part of the backlog and it's part of the expectation for Q4. As has been discussed, this is a multi-year deal, and we're gonna see some of this impact in the H2. What we provided for Q4 is basically 16% higher than last year. And specifically, we anticipate a nice growth in our systems relative to Q4 last year, as well as the Q4 in 2019. We basically expect to see growth almost in all of our streams, all of our platforms.
The continued trend, the strong trend that we saw at manufacturing platforms and offerings. We also expected to see growth coming from consumables as we see consumables pace picking up, compared to last year as well as compared to 2019. We expect that most of the growth will come still from organic growth, and this is why we are definitely encouraged by that. To remind you that our P3 platform as well as SAF will be introduced in the coming few months and will impact 2021 just a little bit, and the majority of this impact will be in 2022.
Okay. That's really helpful. That was gonna lead me to my follow-up, which was, you know, diving into contribution from new products. It doesn't sound like you have, or at least you're expecting significant contribution from, you know, RPS Origin H350 in this year. Is that the sense, and we should really be thinking about the ramp up happening over calendar 2022?
Yeah. Hi, Craig. Thank you for the question, and thank you for investing so much in studying this industry and us as well. Yes. The answer is yes. We will not have significant impact of the two new technologies. We have one technology out there already, the RPS, the SLA, which have really good traction. As for the other two, we are going to have some sales. Practically we'll have the SAF out there. Both of them are in beta stage. SAF is already a few months into beta, and we are going to have it out there at the end of this year. We are now shipping an extensive beta program for the P3, and we are very optimistic about it, but the significant impact will come definitely in 2022.
Of course, we're looking forward to share more about those two exciting technologies.
Interesting. Okay. I'll leave it there. Thanks.
Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Troy Jensen with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please proceed with your questions.
Yeah. Well, first of all, congrats on just a great quarter. I guess my first question is gonna go to Yoav. Specifically on the H350, you know, it's our belief that HP disc.ntinued their 540 and their 580 product line, and they're just going with the production model, the 5,200, going forward. I guess I'd love to hear your thoughts just on the opportunity in the mid-range for high-speed sintering. Do you guys need to have a larger format one in the market too, to compete more against what HP's doing with the 5,200? And then also post-processing, Yoav. That's one thing that I hear about that seems like HP may have thought of better so far for the high-speed sintering. Go ahead, please.
Thank you, Troy. As always, great question. First of all, you know, we have our own program, and the H350 is only the first machine or system in a line of products. Let me be very clear here. We are very optimistic. We think that the SAF technology, it's you know, it's a transformation. The whole agency is transforming powder bed fusion practically because it gets us closer into real manufacturing. And we see it every day because already our beta sites are producing end-use parts to end customers, and they are very happy. Now, if I will relate specifically to the HP announcement, I think it's a good announcement for us overall because there is a segment that would be very happy to adopt our new technology, the SAF technology.
The fact that we will be in this kind of mid-range will give us a lot of points. On top of it, we are good enough. I want to be here also very clear. We are good enough in terms of cost per part, quality of the part, accuracy to compete also with the larger system that we also will have in the future.
All right. Perfect. Just my follow-up too, you guys talked about this other leading global OEM win in the quarter. You made it sound like it was a repeat customer. Is this the same customer that was announced like a year and a half ago that came in with kind of a big chunky order also?
We cannot share the name. I'm sure you understand it. I can only share that this is what we dream of.
I understand you can't share the name.
Yeah, but we-
You can't share a name, but can you just confirm it's the same guy?
I cannot relate to it. I can only say that this is what we dream of, because when we are talking about manufacturing, it's about this relationship and partnership with a major OEM where we really can roll out global distributed manufacturing with the same practices, with a playbook. This is exactly what we are doing, and I think this will be a great example for many other OEMs as well. The fact that they-
Okay.
It's a repeating purchase. It just proven our point that those large OEM are looking for an established player that can deliver, that has the certification, and can support them globally. Yeah, we trying to be humble, but this is strategy.
I completely agree. Congrats. Good luck going forward, and I'll see you in Germany.
Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Jared Maymon with Berenberg Capital Markets. Please proceed with your questions.
Hey, good morning, guys, and nice job executing during the quarter. First question from me. You guys have made some great moves in the last year or so to expand the number of technologies and processes that you offer. From here, I'm wondering kind of is your plan to buckle down and focus on developing and scaling those technologies and the consumables for those technologies? Or do you think there's some more room to go for adding additional processes and technologies in the near to mid-term?
Hi, Jared. Thank you for the question. We have more than $500 million in the bank. We have very clear strategy. We know where we are going. It's a growth strategy. In order to accelerate the growth, we'll first of all make sure that those technologies are best in class and leading each one of the segments we are competing in. This is number one priority. Then we will use our cash to accelerate and to have some technological shortcuts, which, you know, we identify many of those, and we believe that we will be able to accelerate this growth strategy. On top of it, of course, this is the whole essence of what we are doing. We are bringing to our customer the full package, and the full package include the technology, the system, the materials.
We invest a lot in material, and we develop many, many more materials in many different ways. We are expanding our service to fit what a manufacturer expects from us. On top of it, we'll make sure that all this is being connected through what we called our or the base, the foundation is our software platform. We tie everything through the software platform, and we believe that will kind of make the offering perfect, suitable, beneficial for our manufacturing customers. This is the strategy, and we will combine it with very extensive R&D in each one of the groups that are developing this technology, plus extension through material and software and service, some of them organic and some of them inorganic.
Got it. Thanks. There was a service bureau that reported disappointing results last week. They attributed that largely to supply constraints, particularly around labor and logistics. I'm wondering, given that they have a big additive business, did you guys see similar headwinds across the business? Particularly in SDM, did you see those same labor and logistics headwinds there?
Let me relate first. By the way, now I remember that I didn't answer Troy's question about post-processing in AGSS. We are developing it, Troy, and we are going to introduce it in the coming year. It's there. We are investing in it. It's integral part of our workflow. Now back to your question, and sorry. SDM, definitely we are seeing an improvement there. A meaningful improvement, a year-over-year growth of over 25% in Q3 2021 versus Q3 2020. We have the highest end of the service bureau industry. We are working with the top customers, mainly in aerospace and automotive. Yes, we are seeing progress over the last few months versus a very big hit that we experienced during the pandemic.
About headwind for SDM of, logistics and supply chain, it was not meaningful in SDM, in our service bureau. We definitely have, like any other, industrial company on Earth, we have challenges of logistics and supply chain in our overall business. It's a daily fight. I want to thank my operations team for really doing amazing things, so creative. We are successfully delivering. We didn't have any delivery issues, but every day is a challenge, and definitely there is uncertainty there. Having said that, we are one of those privileged industries that are not only suffering from the supply chain challenges, but also enjoying it long-term because this is what brings to life the whole essence and the power of additive manufacturing. You want no more offshoring. You want to have digital inventory.
You want to produce near the customer. We see it every day in the level of engagement we have with the largest OEM on Earth. You know, we fight every day, but we see the light, and we see that the world of manufacturing is going to change and be much more digitalized than what we see now.
Great. Thanks, Yoav.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Shannon Cross with Cross Research. Please proceed with your question.
Thank you very much. I wanted to dig a little bit more into the conversations that you had with customers at Rapid. I know you mentioned that you signed more. It definitely seemed to us like the people who bothered to show up in Chicago were ones that were really interested in 3D printing. I'm wondering, you know, have you seen any change in the timing that they have in terms of the intensity of what they're looking at, the projects that they're focused on? Because it does seem like there's an inflection going on for your company as well as for the industry. I'm just kinda curious as to what you heard. Thank you.
Thank you, Shannon, and thank you for coming to our booth in RAPID. You're very brave. Not so many that came. Well done. Yeah, it was a great opportunity to meet many manufacturers that understand really reading the global map and understand that they need to move forward and to have a change. We see a completely different level of engagement. I would say that it's being reflected in two, kind of two horizons. In between one is the timeline. You can see it here with our Navy deal, for example, or with our OEM deal. Suddenly people, you know, the cycle is shorter. It's still long, but it's shorter because we're talking about long deals that involve service and software and material and support but it's shorter. Definitely, the timeline is shorter. Still long, but shorter.
The second big difference is the level of engagement. We used to engage with technicians, engineers, like those champions that drive change or the change agents within organizations. Following the RAPID + TCT meetings, I had a whole visit in the aerospace hub in Denver. The level of people that I met within the organization, Chief Executive Officers, C-suite executives, it's completely different than what we used to have in the past, which means that we have more challenges because we need to make sure that we are delivering value and on time. It means that those organizations are much more serious about 3D printing, which is great from our perspective.
Thank you. That's helpful. I guess the other question I have from an inventory perspective, can you talk a bit about any, you know, backlogs, challenges you have? I mean, clearly, your inventory continues to come down. Just, you know, where you sort of sat at the end of the quarter and maybe if you saw linearity during the quarter as well in terms of demand and bookings and signings. Thank you.
Yeah. Good morning, Shannon. From inventory perspective, it's as others, OEM and the manufacturers, we do suffer from raw material shortage, for sure. The most important thing is really meeting the customer demand. We are constantly increasing our inventory level, even though you see that at the end of the quarter, it actually went down compared to last quarter. We are proactively taking steps in buying raw material for six or nine or even 12 months ahead, to make sure that we're gonna meet customer demand and to meet the up demand that we see. We're working very intensively in making it happen.
Of course, we are trying to mitigate the issues with sea and air delays in our planning process, and we continue to evaluate a wider area of shipping options to ensure we can deliver goods with minimal business impact. It may come with costs associated with that, but the objective is clear, meeting the customer demand. We're happy to report that so far we were able to do that, and we have a good backlog going into Q4, and we do everything we can in order to meet the demand.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of [Paul Chung] with JP Morgan. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, thanks for taking my questions and great quarter. Just on margins, can you quantify the component inflation and kind of freight costs hitting 3Q and 4Q? Just wanna get a sense for kind of your normalized gross margins as we head into 2022. Can you kind of rebound back to the fiscal year 2019 levels in the low 50s next year?
Hi, Paul. Good morning. Yeah, our gross margin has been pressured by the global logistics constraints as well as raw materials. First of all, we are definitely very happy to see the sequential improvement over the quarters, okay? We believe that this trend will continue as we're gonna continue to see hardware and consumable in the mix. We saw this impact in this quarter and also as compared to last year. If you compare to 2019, the impact of logistic costs as well as the raw material is probably closer to the 2% difference. At the same time, we are still not in a full capacity from production level.
We still have a shortage in raw materials, so this also impacts our level of production as well as investing in ramp-up of our production line, addressing the new platform. We still have a gap, obviously, compared to our for 2019. We believe that when the market recovers, but it's not gonna be a short term in terms of, I'm talking about from logistics and raw material shortage. No one expects that next quarter. This is what's gonna be the picture. It's gonna be probably for the coming few quarters. We will be able to leverage a better gross margin as the global economy improved. At the same time, we are working also on improving our cost on our new platform as part of the product life cycle.
At that point, we are yet to provide guidance for 2022 in terms of our gross margin. With that, we believe that for Q4 specifically, our gross margin level will stay relatively similar to what we saw in Q3.
Gotcha. Just on quarterly OpEx, you know, you're gonna see a step up to the $80 million new run rate moving forward. Is that the right way to think about quarterly OpEx moving forward? Assume, you know, Xaar revenue contribution is minimal, but how do we think about how that business scales over time as well?
Paul, can you please repeat your question?
Yeah. Just on the quarterly OpEx levels, you know, we're gonna see a step up to $80 million. Is that the new run rate moving forward? Is that the right way to think about it?
Yeah. We are increasing OpEx in Q4 and definitely compared to last year. This is basically because of the return to five-day workweek, the higher expenses as the market recovers. We see a higher commission due to higher revenue, and we also include additional operating costs associated with the inclusion of our new business, RPS Origin. Now in Q4, we're also adding our Xaar. This is all part of our strategic investment going forward. I just want to remind you that 2021 it is a year of investment. It is a year of investment, and we believe we are continuing to invest, but we are committed to showing improvement in profitability in the near future.
Great. Lastly on cash flow, you know, you've been positive for the last five quarters, a very good job there. Can we end, you know, fiscal year 2021 in kind of positive territory? You know, are there any working cap things we need to see, like inventory investments or maybe reversal of accounts payable that might weigh on Q4? Thank you.
Yeah, as we look to the fourth quarter of 2021, we are not providing guidance on the operating cash flow. In 2021, we have stated that we expected the majority of our growth to occur in the second half of the year, and this is what we are delivering. Much of the cash flow benefit will come in 2022 and beyond. The preparation for the launch of the three significant NPI we recently introduced, coupled with the safety stock we are building to mitigate the raw material shortage, is expected to increase our inventory level and related payments in the next few quarters, which will increase our operating cash outflow, with certain lag in a cash inflow from collection after we start selling.
Thank you very much.
Okay. I just wanna point out that nothing out of the ordinary is expected for Q4.
Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America. Please proceed with your questions.
Hello. Thank you for taking my question. This is John on behalf of Wamsi. I just want to come back to the guide. You mentioned acceleration in revenue in 2022 and beyond. Could you just provide more color regarding maybe like the magnitude and the key drivers whether it's coming from products, services, or even in certain end markets? From that guide, you know, how much it's predicated on the economic recovery? Thanks.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, John, and send our regards to Wamsi. We are still working under the same assumption, but just in an accelerated mode. We have the same underlying, very strong driver that pushed 3D printing forward, like the one that we already mentioned, the supply chain issues. Really, this is the perfect storm for us in terms of engagement, like I mentioned to Shannon. The fact that people are changing the way they are manufactured in terms of geometries and new technologies that are out there, that we can provide those new parts and new products that are needed there, like moving from metal to composite, for example. That's a very, very strong trend that we see out there. The last one is the overall move into manufacturing, which is more customized and more personalized.
Just to share with you know, an anecdote about those drivers. I met a customer lately in the aerospace, and I spent like half a day there, and I asked them, "Okay, you are using our F900." This is the one, by the way, that we sold in the Navy deal. They are using it for end-use parts, very high-end, customized. One of the customer use it for end-use part, another for jigs and fixtures for aerospace, for space, to be more precise. I asked them, "What is the ROI on our F900?" They told me between 4-6 months. You know, when I'm buying here in Stratasys equipment for production, we are happy with 4-5 years. This is 4-6 months.
I think this is the biggest, you know, example or reflection of what we are experiencing now. Our customers are so advanced, much more advanced than us in many cases, in some applications, to take this forward. We practically build a strategy that address exactly those needs one to one. For each application, you need a different technology. We have all the needed technologies that will fit those challenges in polymers. Done. They need a variety of materials. We have those variety of materials, and we are working on it, and we certify it, and we make sure that it delivers the promise. The last thing is software. We need the software that will carry the user from the design, the early design and the conceptual design, to the manufacturing and the production, through this whole thread, through a software platform.
Those are the growth engines. We have three new technologies. We have the basic core technologies of FDM and PolyJet, the best in the world. We have software and we have material. You put all this with service that we can support 24/7 because we have such a big service organization, and this is the catalyst. We will see this really coming to life next year. The details, of course, this is the high level. The details we'll be happy to share in our next call.
Got it. Thank you. If I could squeeze in a quick follow-up. In regards to the new products coming into market in 2022, just wondering if we were to think about the contribution from these products relative to, you know, 2021, how much growth do you expect them to contribute? Thank you.
Great question, but you know that our policy is not to share these type of details in 2021. We get to the call in early 2022, and we'll be happy to discuss it.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of James Ricchiuti with Needham & Company. Please proceed with your questions.
Hi, good afternoon. Congratulations on the quarter. Maybe just this as a follow-up to the prior question, and you may not be able to answer it, but if we think about the newer products, the H350, the P3, and I realize you can't be granular, but can you tell us if you anticipate those products ramping in the earlier part of 2022, or is the expectation that your optimism to scale up in that takes place more in the second half?
You know, we are now in the process of closing our budget or AOP for next year. So even if I want to give you the exact numbers, I don't know them yet. To be very authentic on this one. We have beta sites, many beta sites with H350. We are on the verge of launching it. The beta sites are very happy. They are producing end use parts to end customers, very large OEMs, by the way. We get very good feedback from the end user, so from the automotive company, from the consumer goods company, from the aerospace companies that are using our parts. This is very encouraging. We are going to launch it. We ramp it up next year, and I believe it will be a significant revenue stream next year and definitely as a product line in the next five, six years.
That's helpful. And if I could just on the Stratasys Direct business, you're seeing what appears to be a nice recovery there, and presumably some of that is just the industry recovery. I'm wondering if you're also, you know, potentially taking some share there, or is this just a case of a broader industry recovery that you're benefiting from?
No, first of all, it's really a very nice recovery, 25% year-over-year. Also we see very good booking data, which is great. In terms of are we gaining share or not, I believe it's less gaining shares because we are in a very unique high-end. I would say in a metaphor, using a metaphor, in the luxury goods of this space, of this industry. We are working with the, you know, highest quality certified parts. Not many. We are not in the quick part business, so not many service bureaus out there are really competing with us. We are very dependent on the aerospace, automotive, high-end. When they are going up, we have our fair share and more.
The key drivers here are aerospace, space and auto, and just your strong position in those key verticals with the advanced equipment you have. Is that a way to think about what's happening there?
Yes.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Brian Drab. Please proceed with your questions.
Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to ask about OpEx again. I don't know how to ask this question in a way that you'll answer it, but for 2022, I'm just wondering, can you give any guidance around, directionally around, OpEx? You know, you mentioned we locked, you know, 2021, an investment year. I would assume 2022 continues to be an investment year and then more trade shows, more you know travel and entertainment, et cetera, type expenses coming back. I'm just want...
You know, the street is now modeling up like 6% growth in OpEx for 2022, and I'm just having flashbacks from like 2013, 2014 when things were starting, you know, it really seemed like they were going well and everything was picking up and then OpEx was up like $100 million plus the next year. Can you just give us some comfort that, you know, is OpEx going to grow in line with like an expected revenue growth, or does OpEx grow slower than revenue in 2022? Is $80 million the right kind of run rate to think about or is it higher than that? Like, any sense for that? Because this, I think, is the biggest variable in the model right now.
Yeah. Good morning, Brian. You definitely can appreciate that at this stage of
Morning.
You probably can appreciate that at this stage we are not specifically providing guidance on 2022, and we will come back at the end of February to address it. For sure, I can share with you in terms of directionally the way we view our business model. We definitely looking to see the OpEx as a percentage of revenue is going down. We already demonstrate this even in this quarter, okay? Definitely this is directionally, this is what we are planning into. We are committed to steadily improve our profitability, and we will see the impact over time. In terms of how much of that will be in 2022 and how much will be more in the long term, it's more further to detail.
It's true that this year, 2021, was a year of investment. We include three new platform as part of our broad portfolio, and we are planning to invest in broaden those technology also in the future. All along, we are planning to see a leverage model as part of our business model.
Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Then, I don't know if you said this, but how much did acquisitions within the last 12 months contribute to revenue in the third quarter, whether it's RPS and Origin, et cetera.
Brian, as I commented before, in Q3 or in the last three quarters, we didn't see yet the impact of P3 and SAF. We had some impact, definitely a very nice impact of RPS. We're very encouraged by the reception of this product in our market, in our customers. It's open for us new markets, new applications. We are not providing specifics on each of the specific numbers on this opportunity, but definitely it was a growth driver as well as, like I said, a door opening. The methodology of-
Sorry, Lilach, you can't collectively though give the contribution from acquisitions just so we can, and maybe a foreign exchange, just so we can have an organic revenue growth number to put in the model. You know what I'm asking, just like the dollars-
Yeah.
from acquisitions dollars from, you know, swing from FX, just so we can get the exact organic revenue growth, which I'm sure was a nice number. I'm just trying to get to the number.
We are not providing the specific dollar value as associated with our acquisition of RPS.
Okay.
Uh, uh-
Okay.
Definitely it was a good traction. The most important thing is, apart from just how much in the specific quarter, I think the most important thing takeaway to take from RPS is how it actually opened for us market. The opportunity and the demand and the discussion that we are having around this product is so significant, and this is what the essence of what we need to be focused on. If you ask me specifically about FX, you definitely can see the numbers or so the impact compared to 2020, it's about $2.8 million between Q3 2020 to Q3 2020.
As a positive, you mean added to revenue?
Yes, it is.
Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Greg Palm with Craig-Hallum. Please proceed with your questions.
All right, I'm just gonna ask, you know, one more follow-up and just try to take a stab. I know you're not guiding for fiscal 2022, but I guess if we think about guidance for this year, which you've said includes, you know, very little contribution from the three new products, you know, it assumes revenue's down about 5% from the 2019 levels, right? So $605 million versus the $636. So I guess what I'm trying to figure out is based on your visibility into next year, would you expect your core business, so, you know, mostly FDM, PolyJet, so excluding the contribution from the three new products, would that have increased to pre-COVID or 2019 revenue levels next year, if you're following the thought pattern there?
Hi, Greg. Simple answer, yes, we expect it to grow. You can see it also here. Most of our growth came from the core businesses. We enter new application. We came with the full solution approach, and it works. We took them to manufacturing, and we'll keep doing it.
That would get you to at least 5% growth, and then if we layer on, you know, whatever we think is contribution from new products, I mean, my assumption is you'd probably be disappointed if you weren't growing somewhere in the double digits next year. Is that at least a fair characterization?
You know that we are not providing guidance now. We are optimistic. We are growing with all business lines, with the core, with the acquisitions, and we didn't really put into the market the new two most promising technologies that we have. I'm optimistic. We keep working out, keep sweating, and make sure that we will be the leader in polymer 3D printing with the full package and solution.
All right, fair enough. Totally understand. I thought I'd take a stab anyways. Thanks and good luck.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to management for any closing comments.
Thank you for joining us today. Looking forward to speaking again next quarter.
Thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Have a great day.