South Africa Urged to Sweeten US Trade Deal Before Tariff Deadline
South Africa hopes to negotiate a lower levy than the 30% already allocated by Trump, with a deadline to strike a deal by Friday. Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau said US officials weren't sure themselves what the president would decide and had encouraged South African officials to submit an enhanced proposal.
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Yahoo
4 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Proto Labs Inc (PRLB) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Record Revenue and Strategic Growth ...
Revenue: $135.1 million, a company record, up 6.5% year over year in constant currencies, and up 7% sequentially. CNC Machining Revenue: Grew 20% over the prior year, with a 30% increase in the US. Injection Molding Revenue: Declined 4% year over year. 3D Printing Revenue: Down 1% year over year. Sheet Metal Revenue: Grew 9% year over year. US Revenue: Grew 12% year over year. Europe Revenue: Declined 15% in constant currencies. Non-GAAP Gross Margin: 44.8%, flat sequentially, down 90 basis points year over year. Non-GAAP Operating Expenses: Increased $2.7 million, up 6% consistent with revenue. Adjusted EBITDA: $19.7 million, or 14.6% of revenue. Non-GAAP Earnings Per Share: $0.41, above guidance range, up $0.08 sequentially, and up $0.03 year over year. Cash from Operations: $10.6 million generated during the second quarter. Share Repurchases: $3.1 million returned to shareholders. Cash and Investments: $123.2 million on balance sheet with zero debt. Q3 2025 Revenue Guidance: Expected between $130 million and $138 million, implying 6% growth year over year in constant currencies. Q3 2025 Non-GAAP EPS Guidance: Expected between $0.35 and $0.43. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 7 Warning Signs with PRLB. Release Date: July 31, 2025 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Positive Points Proto Labs Inc (NYSE:PRLB) delivered record revenue of $135.1 million in the second quarter, exceeding expectations. The company saw a 44% growth in customers utilizing their combined offer over the trailing 12 months. Revenue per customer increased by 11% year over year, indicating strong customer engagement. The metal 3D Printing service in Raleigh, North Carolina received ISO 13,485 certification, enhancing credibility in the medical device manufacturing sector. Proto Labs Inc (NYSE:PRLB) continues to generate healthy cash flows, allowing for ongoing investments in growth and innovation. Negative Points Injection Molding revenue declined by 4% year over year, with noted weakness in the medical sector. 3D Printing revenue was down 1% year over year, reflecting continued weakness in prototyping. European revenue declined by 15% in constant currencies, indicating challenges in the region. Tariffs and changing trade policies created short-term margin pressures, impacting profitability. Gross margin was down 90 basis points year over year, driven by higher growth in network revenue and lower US network margins due to tariffs. Q & A Highlights Q: Can you elaborate on the strength you're seeing in CNC, particularly in terms of growth across the factory and network? A: Daniel Schumacher, CFO: We are experiencing similar growth in both the factory and the network, with a 30% CNC growth in the US driving the overall 20% growth for the company. Suresh Krishna, CEO: We've grown revenues with larger accounts due to our go-to-market reorganization, and our production teams have shown agility in responding to customer needs. Q: Is the CNC work leaning more towards production or prototyping? A: Daniel Schumacher, CFO: It is a combination of both production and prototyping. We don't provide a specific split, but both contribute to our revenue growth. Q: Can you provide more details on the Injection Molding business and the factors affecting its performance? A: Daniel Schumacher, CFO: The network is a small portion of our Injection Molding business, with most of it through the factory. We saw some larger production orders last year, particularly in automotive, which impacted year-over-year comparisons. Currently, we are seeing weakness in the medical sector, but we continue to innovate and add capabilities to drive future production growth. Q: What excites you about joining Proto Labs, and what are your initial observations? A: Suresh Krishna, CEO: I'm excited about the opportunity to reaccelerate growth. My focus is on listening to employees, customers, and partners to remove friction and identify future opportunities. I believe there is significant potential to enhance customer and employee experiences. Q: Can you explain the impact of tariffs on gross margins and how it was addressed? A: Daniel Schumacher, CFO: Tariffs impacted our US network margins, particularly on aluminum and steel. We adjusted pricing and fulfillment strategies, and by June, margins returned to normal. The impact was due to a backlog priced at different assumptions, but adjustments have since stabilized margins. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
San Francisco Chronicle
6 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Corporation for Public Broadcasting to shut down after being defunded by Congress, targeted by Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a cornerstone of American culture for three generations, announced Friday it would take steps toward its own closure after being defunded by Congress — marking the end of a nearly six-decade era in which it fueled the production of renowned educational programming, cultural content and even emergency alerts. The demise of the corporation, known as CPB, is a direct result of President Donald Trump's targeting of public media, which he has repeatedly said is spreading political and cultural views antithetical to those the United States should be espousing. The closure is expected to have a profound impact on the journalistic and cultural landscape — in particular, public radio and TV stations in small communities across the United States. CPB helps fund both PBS and NPR, but most of its funding is distributed to more than 1,500 local public radio and television stations around the country. The corporation also has deep ties to much of the nation's most familiar programming, from NPR's 'All Things Considered' to, historically, 'Sesame Street,' 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' and the documentaries of Ken Burns. The corporation said its end, 58 years after being signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, would come in an 'orderly wind-down.' In a statement, it said the decision came after the passage through Congress of a package that clawed back its funding for the next two budget years — about $1.1 billion. Then, the Senate Appropriations Committee reinforced that policy change Thursday by excluding funding for the corporation for the first time in more than 50 years as part of a broader spending bill. 'Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,' said Patricia Harrison, the corporation's president and CEO. As part of Thursday's committee deliberations, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., authored but then withdrew an amendment to restore CPB funding for the coming budget year. She said she still believed there was a path forward 'to fix this before there are devastating consequences for public radio and television stations across the country.' 'It's hard to believe we've ended up in the situation we're in,' she said. 'And I'm going to continue to work with my colleagues to fix it.' But Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, sounded a less optimistic tone. 'I understand your concerns, but we all know we litigated this two weeks ago,' Capito said. 'Adopting this amendment would have been contrary to what we have already voted on.' CPB said it informed employees Friday that most staff positions will end with the fiscal year on Sept. 30. It said a small transition team will stay in place until January to finish any remaining work — including, it said, 'ensuring continuity for music rights and royalties that remain essential to the public media system.' 'Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country,' Harrison said. 'We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience, leadership, and unwavering dedication to serving the American people.' The impact will be widespread NPR stations use millions of dollars in federal money to pay music licensing fees. Now, many will have to renegotiate these deals. That could impact, in particular, outlets that build their programming around music discovery. NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher estimated recently, for example, that some 96% of all classical music broadcast in the United States is on public radio stations. Federal money for public radio and television has traditionally been appropriated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes it to NPR and PBS. Roughly 70% of the money goes directly to the 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations across the country, although that's only a shorthand way to describe its potential impact. Trump, who has called the CPB a 'monstrosity,' has long said that public broadcasting displays an extreme liberal bias, helped create the momentum in recent months for an anti-public broadcasting groundswell among his supporters in Congress and around the country. It is part of a larger initiative in which he has targeted institutions — particularly cultural ones — that produce content or espouse attitudes that he considers 'un-American.' The CPB's demise represents a political victory for those efforts. His impact on the media landscape has been profound. He has also gone after U.S. government media that had independence charters, including the venerable Voice of America, ending that media outlet's operations after many decades. Trump also fired three members of the corporation's board of directors in April. In legal action at the time, the fired directors said their dismissal was governmental overreach targeting an entity whose charter guarantees it independence.
CBS News
6 minutes ago
- CBS News
Trade adviser says Trump has "real concerns" about jobs data after president fires labor statistics chief
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer defended President Trump's decision to fire a key official responsible for employment reports, telling CBS News on Friday that Mr. Trump has "real concerns" about the accuracy of federal economic data. Greer spoke to "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" hours after the monthly jobs report showed a hiring slowdown in July and revised down earlier reports for May and June. Mr. Trump reacted by firing Commissioner of Labor Statistics Erika McEntarfer, claiming — without evidence — Friday's jobs numbers were "RIGGED." "You know, even last year during the campaign, there were enormous swings in the jobs numbers, and so it sounds to me like the president has real concerns," Greer told CBS News, adding that Mr. Trump's issues with government labor data extend beyond Friday's report. "You want to be able to have somewhat reliable numbers. There are always revisions, but sometimes you see these revisions go in really extreme ways," said Greer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' reports are based on surveys of households and businesses. It's common for the agency to revise prior months' figures up or down as more data comes in. The May and June revisions — which cut the number of new jobs by a combined 258,000 — were the largest downward change in employment figures since 1979, excluding pandemic-era jobs reports, though that doesn't mean the data was manipulated, as Mr. Trump claims. Greer defended Mr. Trump's right to fire McEntarfer, an economist who was nominated to the post by former President Joe Biden. "The President is the President. He can choose who works in the executive branch," Greer said. The firing drew staunch criticism, with McEntarfer's predecessor William Beach — who was first nominated in Mr. Trump's first term — calling it "groundless" and a "dangerous precedent." "This rationale for firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit and undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families, and policymakers," Beach said in a statement. Friday's report showed the economy added 73,000 jobs in July, below the 115,000 predicted by economists. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.2%, up from 4.1% a month earlier. The jobs report also showed a slight drop in manufacturing jobs last month. Mr. Trump's tariff hikes are intended in part to boost American manufacturing — though critics warn some U.S.-based factories that rely on foreign-made inputs will be hurt by tariffs. When asked about July's manufacturing data, Greer — one of Mr. Trump's trade negotiators — told CBS News he doesn't "read tariff policy into that number." Instead, Greer argued that the numbers reflect conditions prior to the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed through Congress last month. He argued businesses were "waiting to see" if some of the bill's tax provisions would pass, including parts that GOP lawmakers believe will encourage more business investment. "I think that we're going to see a big increase in manufacturing jobs now that we have the 'one big, beautiful bill' passed," Greer said. "And I think that … our manufacturers know that they have a clear and certain path forward on that now."
