Credit Suisse Revises Their 3D Printing Projections

In light of new analysis, banking giant Credit Suisse has recalculated its 3D printing projection, stating that the manufacturing tech’s market will increase to $800M by 2016.

 

Led by market researcher Jonathan Shaffer, the revised projection is a startling 357% increase from Credit Suisse’s $175M market estimate late last year. Driving that claim is the bank’s opinion that “prosumer” acquisition of the technology is sure to rise.

 

We think eventually there could be near 100% penetration amongst engineers as it becomes a common element of the engineer's toolkit ... The number of registered architects in the US [now stands at 222,500]. We think this represents another potential growth driver, although we acknowledge the computer design proficiency amongst architects is likely lower than among recent engineering graduates ... We think children under 18 will be a primary driver of adoption; they are more likely to have heightened computer proficiency, and technological awareness is high in this age group.

 

Read more at ENGINEERING.com

Public or Private? How Ownership Affects 3D Printing Companies

There are two kinds of 3D printer companies these days: privately held or publicly traded. We believe the company type affects how they interact with the rest of the industry. 

 

Most small firms are privately held by the founders or a small group of investors. The largest companies, most notably Stratasys and 3D Systems, are publicly traded on stock markets. If you like, you could actually own a piece of either or both. Over the past few years you would have made quite a return on your money. 

  

But what does it mean to be publicly traded? It means that the company must follow a fairly rigid set of financial reporting rules set down by relevant governments and regulatory agencies. Essentially, their actions must be transparent to the shareholders; they cannot misrepresent any financial data or they might be guilty of attempting to manipulate their stock prices. 

 

In practice, it means they must report to their shareholders and the public (who are all potential shareholders) on a regular basis. Quarterly reports are issued with statistics on what’s happening. 

 

Should anything negative happen, public reaction could be to sell their shares, thus driving down the price of the stock. This would be a bad thing, so publicly traded companies do everything they can to maintain consistent growth. No surprises. 

 

In a sense it does tie their hands. Should a company need to make a major transition to a new technology that requires significant investment (and therefore temporary losses or reductions in income), publicly companies are at a disadvantage. They can’t really do that without blowing out their stock price. 

  

On the other hand, privately held companies can do more or less what they wish, so long as they convince their small set of private shareholders they’re doing the right thing.  

 

Privately held companies can be more nimble than public ones because of this. 

 

Ironically, however, the two largest companies in 3D printing, 3D Systems and Stratasys, are going gangbusters developing new products and acquiring new talent and companies. 

 

It just demonstrates how intensely competitive the 3D printing market is these days. 

The Growth of 3D Printing Stocks

This blog has a number of years under its belt. We first published on October 27th, 2007, a period when 3D printing was not well known outside of a small set of industrial users. Much has happened since then. 

 

At that time there were two major 3D printing companies, 3D Systems and Stratasys, who had independently invented different 3D printing processes in the 1980’s. You could buy shares in those companies back than. 

 

But what if you had? How has the growth of their stock prices been? 

 

Spectacular. But let’s examine a potentially real scenario. Let’s say you had USD$1,000 to invest. Say you bought USD$1,000 in shares of Stratasys on October 27, 2007. Where would your investment be today, had you held on to it? 

 

Stratasys stock price Oct 26, 2007: $30.27

Stratasys stock price Dec 20, 2013: $125.87

 

This is a multiple of 4.15X, meaning your USD$1,000 would have become USD$4,158 today. It would have been even larger had you purchased during the 2008 downturn, where Stratasys’ stock price bottomed out at $11.84 in November 2008. 

 

Not a bad deal. Too bad we didn’t put USD$100,000 in back then… 

3D Printing Be Could Be Worth $8.41B by 2020

According to a recent study, the market for 3D printers could be worth nearly $8.5 billion by 2020.

 

The study, conducted by Indian research firm MarketsandMarkets, forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 23% for 3D printing technology over the next seven years. According to MarketsandMarkets, one of the motivations for this growth is the adoption of the technology for end use applications.

 

The study highlighted high tech industries that require a low volume of parts with very complex geometries. An example of this is the aerospace industry, which has already proven to be an early adopter of advanced additive manufacturing techniques such as direct metal laser sintering (DMLS).

 

Read more at ENGINEERING.com

ExOne Under Fire After Scathing Report

In a recent article at Street Sweeper, Sonya Colberg has accused 3D Printer company ExOne of “diluting investors’ shares to raise millions just six months after its public offering”.

 

In the article, Colberg accuses CEO Kent Rockwell of mismanaging the firm and using it as his own “piggy-bank”. According to the report, within the company’s S1 registration papers lies a share sale plan that will enrich Rockwell more than the company during its next share offering. “The chief executive and his interests get far more money under this deal than the company itself”, explains Colberg.

 

Read More at ENGINEERING.com

3D Printing Stocks Get a Boost from CitiGroup

In early trading this week 3D Systems (DDD) and Stratasys (SSYS) stocks took a dramatic jump as analysts from Citigroup gave the two companies a “buy” ratings. By midsession on Monday 3D Systems’ stock was up 8% garnering a $52.41 price per share. Nearly mirroring DDD’s performance, Stratasys’ stock rose 5% to a whopping $111.07.

 

According to Citigroup, 3D Systems’ printers are "best positioned to capitalize on all three potential market opportunities (prototyping, manufacturing, consumer)". Analysts at the global bank also believe Stratasys can achieve "sustainable margin expansion and earnings growth with materials consumption driving recurring revenue mix". Citi placed its upper bar for SSYS at $125.

 

Read More at ENGINEERING.com

Stratasys Expects More Revenue

This is interesting: 3D printing giant Stratasys raised their revenue expectations for the year 2013 following the merger with MakerBot. The change moved expected full-year revenue from "only" USD$430-455M to a larger USD$445-480M, a rise of USD$15-25M. 

 

We suspect a chunk of this new revenue is from MakerBot's sales of personal 3D printers, as well as increased sales of Stratasys' existing large commercial 3D printers. 

 

Given that MakerBot Replicator 2's sell for around USD$2,000, it would appear they expect to sell quite a few units this year. 

 

Via Globes

3D Printing Hits USD$2.2B in 2012

According to the annual Wohler's Report, the 3D printing industry broke the USD$2B annual mark for the first time in history during 2012. 

 

Apparently the industry grew by a staggering 28.6% over 2011, far more than the overall economic growth rate. (Is it actually growing at all? We're not sure.)

 

This demonstrates a few things. 3D printing is a major growth factor in today's industry, lifting the economies of the world up from lower depths they would otherwise have. Aside from the direct revenue from 3D printing, the effects of 3D printing have made many companies far more efficient in development and even production of their products. 

 

The report also shows the breakdown of industrial 3D printing by country: 

 

• United States: 38 percent
• Japan: 9.7 percent
• Germany: 9.4 percent
• China: 8.7 percent 

This is not surprising - but we think there are even more interesting breakdowns if personal 3D printing were included. While personal 3D printing has a lot of buzz right now, it is still quite small compared to the revenues flying around at the commercial level. 

 

Just wait. 

 

Via Spar Point Group

ExOne Stock Tumbles

The stock price of ExOne, makers of high-end commercial 3D printers specializing in sand and metal printing, took a 15% tumble yesterday - in sharp contrast to the few other 3D printing company stocks who continued to sail higher. 

 

Why the tumble? Evidently ExOne missed analysts predictions for quarterly sales and per-share losses announced were almost twice as bad as expected. 

 

The company assigned blame to the struggling European economy, which actually makes some sense to us. ExOne does not sell any low-end machines, meaning their customers are large industrial operations that can be subject to budget cutting. ExOne's strategy is to sell a few units at very high prices - but if the number of units is affected even slightly, they'll take a big hit, which is what seems to have happened here. 

 

We're not too concerned, as demand for 3D printing continues to increase. Just because one company has hit a bump doesn't mean the ride is over. 

 

Via Investors.com

More 3D Printing Investment Possibilities

When you're interested in investing in 3D printing, there doesn't seem to be a lot of options at first glance. The publicly traded 3D printer manufacturers are few: Stratasys, 3D Systems and most recently, ExOne. 

 

Is that all the choice you have? No! There's more ways to catch the 3D printing boom. 

 

Aside from privately investing in the numerous 3D printing startups, there are several big companies that have key stakes in the 3D printing industry whose stock price should rise as interest increases. 

 

They're software companies. Companies who provide the software tools needed to make use of 3D printing. Here's a few publicly traded companies you might consider checking out: 

 

• AutoDesk, NASDAQ:ADSK. Among the major 3D modeling software makers, AutoDesk seems to be the one addressing personal 3D printing most clearly. 
• Siemens AG, NYSE:SI. While Siemens is a gigantic company, they also make Solid Edge, one of the leading 3D design tools. 
• Trimble, NASDAQ:TRMB. Trimble focuses on navigation tools, but recently took over management of SketchUp from Google, possibly indicating a move into the 3D space. 
• Faro, NASDAQ:FARO. Faro makes a line of accurate 3D scanner hardware, essential to many 3D printing workflows.

 

One notable investment that's not available for public trading is Dassault Systèmes, makers of SolidWorks and several other 3D modeling tools. 

 

There's even more opportunities if you dig deeper. 

 

Are others considering these companies? Yes, indeed. Seeking Alpha had a recent piece promoting investment in AutoDesk. 

 

Via Seeking Alpha

Image Credit: Wikipedia

Shapeways Snaps Up $30M

Considering that Shapeways is located in New York City, it seems a little strange that they did not exhibit at the Inside 3D Printing expo last week. But they had a rather good excuse: they've raised another round of funding from their existing investors to the tune of USD$30M. 

 

Shapeways Director of Marketing Carine Carmy explained that they could not exhibit as they were overwhelmed with the investment announcement, which you must admit is pretty dramatic. 

 

This is a staggering amount of cash, suggesting they have grand plans for world domination, or perhaps merely domination of 3D print services. 

 

When we visited Shapeways "Factory of the Future", we were struck by the absolutely cavernous factory floor - most of which was empty. At the time the question we pondered was, "who's going to pay for all this space?" 

 

The answer is now clear. Expect another 50 large scale 3D printers to appear in that space soon. 

 

Via Shapeways/PRWire

Investors Seek 3D Printing Investments

At this point in time 3D printing has a significant amount of buzz. With that buzz comes investment, as entrepreneurs attempt to build new businesses in the new space. 

 

But there's another kind of investment: raw capital. Wall Street types, attracted by the buzz, want to plow money into 3D printing startups, hopeful that they'll grow dramatically and convert that pile of money into an even bigger pile of money. 

 

At this week's 3D printing conference in New York City, Wall Street is literally only blocks away. It was thus unsurprising that around 25% of the attendees were from the investment community. It was very common to see a name badge with "XYZ Capital Corp" or similar displayed. 

 

That didn't prepare us for the blatant and aggressive investment conversations we heard. Consider these actual quotes overheard from a pair of well-suited gentlemen surveying the expo floor: 

 

Which company is going to get big? 

 

and 

 

I'm looking for the next Shapeways!

 

And delivered in a tone similar to shopping at Wal-Mart. Yes, these are actual, true quotes from actual suits. 

 

Who knew making millions was this easy? 

 

Image Credit: Wikipedia

ExOne Reports Results

3D printer manufacturer ExOne, one of the very few publicly traded 3D printer companies, announced the results of their fourth quarter 2012 operations. The results look promising - but it's not all good news.  

 

During the fourth quarter of 2012 the company received revenues of USD$12.7M, up 27% over the previous year. Some USD$900,000 in profit was made during that quarter as well. 

 

However, for the entire year 2012, ExOne reported a loss of USD$10.2M. It's not all that bad, however, as revenue climbed 87.6% over 2011. 

 

Results such as these can be expected from the type of market ExOne addresses: big time manufacturers. In all of 2012, ExOne sold only thirteen machines. That may not sound like a lot, but each machine is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Dividing their USD$28.7M revenue by thirteen machines suggests ballpark revenue of around $2M each. It won't take many sales to turn this ship. 

 

Via ExOne