The traditional printing industry has given way to new age 3D printing, which is the latest technology in the sector. 3D printing costs less for the printing companies to make and assemble; therefore, many companies have switched to 3D printing techniques. Right now, 3D printing stocks are trading at a good discount in the stock market. Research analysts from Oppenheimer are of the belief that this is a golden opportunity for investors to buy some 3D stocks right away as they are due to see immense growth in the future. This field has the potential to grow by more than 25% in a single year as it is looking to spread its wings in some of the top sectors like medical devices, metal and electronics market. The following are some of the top 3D printing stocks that you need to buy if you are looking for long term gains.
A gamut of services
One of the biggest players in the 3D printing market is 3D Systems (DDD, Financial). It has a market capitalisation of $3.1 billion and was trading at a year high rate of $82 per share sometime back. However, the prices have dropped to around $28 per share presently, thereby presenting a great opportunity for investors to buy them right away. 3D systems have a wide gamut of products and services to fall back upon and this will benefit the investors of the company in the long run. 3D Systems launched at least 10 new high-value products last year and its margins will increase phenomenally this year due to this. One of the biggest machines for 3D Systems was the ProX 400, a gigantic model designed to cater to the bulk 3D printing requirements of large scale manufacturers. With a diverse nature of products in its portfolio and with Oppenheimer’s expectations that the share price would touch $57 per share, 3D systems are a must-buy now. The following is the share price trend of the company for the last few months:
Good business strategies
One of the smaller players in the 3D printing market, ExOne (XONE, Financial), has a huge potential to pick up in the coming years because of certain simple business policies. The company understands that its strengths are castings, tools and other services related to final stages of production; hence, it will do all what it can to make maximum usage of these points and reduce losses as much as it can. The market cap of ExOne is $200m. The share price of the company was around $48.8 during the beginning of last year, but later on, slowly dropped to around $15 currently. This reduced price presents the perfect opportunity for investors to invest in this stock as the company’s casting and tooling sector is expected to grow at the rate of 25% this year according to Oppenheimer. The research company also expects the share prices to go up to $35 per share during this year. Stock movement of the company for the last few months is shown below:
Steady growth amidst severe competition
What will you do as an investor if a company’s share price had come down from around $130 to $51 in the same year? Just sell and quit? Not when the company is Stratasys (SSYS, Financial) though. Being one of the leaders in the 3D printing world, Stratasys faced stiff competition from Hewlett Packard (HPQ, Financial) in the printing segment and hence had to devise new strategies and invest a lot into the research & development sectors in order to sustain in the market. The additive manufacturing segment is expected to see 8.1% and 19.5% growth rates for 2015 and 2016 respectively. The share prices have indeed stumbled, but that is because Stratasys is solely focussed on increasing long term profits and hence does not mind to forego short term benefits right now. The analyst team from RBC predicts that share prices might go up to $82 per share this year. Investors should make use of the low prices and get into this stock right now to reap long term profits. The share price trend of the company for the last few months is as follows:
Conclusion
With 3D printing all set to sweep the stakes in the printing industry for the next few years, investors must be thrilled to invest in the above mentioned companies right now. Their share prices are trading at a discount and this is the perfect moment to capitalise on this and buy these stocks as they are sure to give back reasonable rate of returns in another couple of years.
