Sunday, January 08, 2012

3D Printers Can Create Stuff Smaller than a Speck of Dust: 3D Printer Stocks?

The following video is about the latest technology in small scale three dimensional printing. It is about ten minutes long and the lecture starts about 40 seconds into the video.


If you are wondering if there are any publicly traded companies that are involved in 3D printing, there are actually a couple to choose from. 3D Systems Corporation (DDD), a Rock Hill, South Carolina based company, makes and sells 3D printers and related products. The company just announced that it is unveiling its Cubify.com 3D @home experience, which allows sharing printable content and has intuitive apps to modify and print creations. In addition, a new Kinect-to-print app powered by Geomagic and many tablet-to-print content creation and manipulation apps are being showcased.

3D Systems, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, has been around since 1986. In the last three months, analysts have given the stock a Strong Buy. The stock trades at 22 times current earnings and 20 times forward earnings. Earnings for the latest quarter were up 34.50% and a 38.6% rise in revenues. The company has $72 million in cash and less than $8 million in total debt.

Another 3D printer business is Stratasys, Inc. (SSYS), which produces three-dimensional printers, rapid prototyping systems, and related consumable materials. This Minnesota based company was founded in 1989. In September, Dougherty & Company upgraded the company from Neutral to a Buy, but Needham reduced it from Buy to Hold.

Latest quarterly earnings were up an amazing 84.40% on a 31.2% increase in revenues. The company is debt free and has $18 million in cash. The stock trades at 30 times forward earnings.

On the software side, there is Autodesk, Inc. (ADSK), which makes 3D software for many different industries, everything from entertainment to architecture to manufacturing. The stock has a forward price to earnings ratio of 15, is debt free, and has over a billion dollars in the bank.

Dentists are already putting this technology to make crowns in their offices. You will be able to make your own hearing aid, designed exactly for your ear. Small businesses are using this equipment to make models and prototypes. This will be one of the next major trends.

Disclosure: Author owns DDD.

By Stockerblog.com

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