Why Proto Labs Stock Plunged 67% in 2021

Shares of quick-turn contract manufacturer Proto Labs (NYSE: PRLB) plummeted 66.5% in 2021, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The stock's poor performance can be largely attributed to fallout from the pandemic and the company underperforming Wall Street's expectations, as we'll explore in a moment.

For context, the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite indexes returned 28.7% and 22.2%, respectively, last year.

Proto Labs offers both traditional manufacturing and 3D printing services. It doesn't have good comparables, but some imperfect context seems better than no context. With that said, pure-play 3D printing companies Stratasys and 3D Systems gained 18.2% and 106%, respectively, in 2021. While still a quite imperfect comparable, Stratasys is now the better comparison for Proto Labs because 3D Systems sold its on-demand service business in the third quarter of last year.

Source Fool.com