Kornit Digital unveils Presto MAX PLUS printing system

Kornit Digital launched its Presto MAX PLUS roll-to-roll printing system, extending its digital textile platform into footwear, automotive interiors, military camouflage, sportswear, and furnishings. Analysts now expect the company to turn profitable this year with projected EPS of $0.30, and two analysts recently raised estimates; Morgan Stanley also lifted its price target to $17 from $15. The company reported Q4 2025 revenue of $58.9 million in line with guidance and reaffirmed its shift toward recurring revenue, while customers on existing Presto MAX systems can upgrade to the new capabilities.

Analysis

KRNT is moving from a “nice-to-have” printer vendor toward a platform play that can monetize more of the production stack: hardware attach, consumables, workflow software, and upgrades to its installed base. The strategic read-through is that management is trying to de-risk cyclicality by making the economics more recurring and more embedded in customers’ operations; that matters because gross margin expansion from software/consumables tends to show up 2-4 quarters before the market fully believes the earnings inflection.

The bigger second-order effect is competitive. A credible push into footwear, automotive interiors, and performance apparel raises the switching cost for customers already designing around Kornit’s workflow, which can pressure smaller digital textile vendors that compete only on machine throughput. If the upgrade path proves painless, the installed base becomes a quasi-annuity, and the market may be underestimating how much future revenue can be pulled forward from upgrades rather than new logo wins.

The risk is that end-market qualification cycles in industrial textiles are still long, so the launch is a catalyst only if it converts into booked systems and consumables consumption over the next 2-3 quarters. The stock can rerate on narrative, but it will give back gains quickly if 2026 guidance remains low-single-digit and the new platform doesn’t visibly accelerate impressions growth. The contrarian view is that investors may be overpaying for “optionality” in categories that are attractive on slides but slow to penetrate in practice; this is a story where the first proof point is usage data, not product theater.

From a market-structure angle, the more important upside may be that sustained upgrade demand can compress the path to profitability faster than the headline revenue line implies. If recurring mix improves, consensus EPS revisions can outpace revenue revisions, which is usually when mid-cap hardware names get the sharpest multiple expansion.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Long KRNT into the next 1-2 earnings windows if the thesis is accelerated recurring revenue; target a 15-25% move if upgrades/consumables traction shows up in commentary, but cut if bookings do not translate into backlog conversion.
• Use a call spread in KRNT rather than outright stock for the next 3-6 months to express upside from platform adoption while capping downside if the launch proves mostly incremental.
• Pair trade: long KRNT / short a slower-growth industrial print or automation name with less recurring mix, to isolate the rerating from software/consumables conversion rather than broad capex beta.
• For conservative accounts, wait for evidence in quarterly impressions growth before adding; the asymmetry improves only after one clean data point, and the setup is vulnerable to a 'sell the announcement' reaction.