Looking Beyond The Disappointing Results Of This 3-D Printing Stock

This article was originally published by GuruFocus on April 14, 2014

By Sarfaraz A. Khan and Gohar Yousuf. 
 
ExOne (XONE) has recently released its quarterly results that disappointed investors as the company swung to a surprising loss. Moreover, its forecast was also well below market’s expectations. Its shares are down 54.6% this year and closed at $27.56 on Friday.

Despite all the pessimism, the 3-D printing industry is growing at an accelerated pace, driven by strong demand from bigger enterprise buyers. ExOne is betting its future on the growth of the metals printing industry, including the replacement parts market. The company has already attracted some big enterprise customers. With the decline in prices, ExOne could attract even more clients.

Which 3-D Printing Company Should You Choose?

From The Motley Fool
By Sarfaraz A. Khan
Research Assistant G. Yousuf

The online retail behemoth Amazon has given a mainstream boost to the latest manufacturing revolution, 3-D printers, by launching a dedicated section for 3-D printers under its industrial and scientific department. In this section customers can shop for printers, printer filament, software, accessories, and books related to 3-D printing.

The office-supply store Staples is already selling 3D Systems’ (NYSE: DDD) consumer printer called Cube. Amazon, on other hand, is the official reseller of MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3-D printer. Amazon, like others, believes that although the 3-D technology is exciting and looks promising, it still has a long way to go and requires the support of larger corporations.

The 3-D printing market is getting consolidated to two main firms: 3D Systems and Stratasys(NASDAQ: SSYS). Both of these were the top-performing stocks in 2012 with 3D Systems increasing by 270%, while Stratasys rose by 158% in the 12 months ending December 2012. This year, the growth of the two traditional 3-D stocks has been relatively modest, but a new entrant, ExOne (NASDAQ: XONE) is feeding the market’s appetite and its stock has risen by 93% this year.