3-D printing is one of the hottest investing spaces in the market today, and understanding who has a competitive edge in the technology involved is crucial for investors in these companies. In this video, Motley Fool industrials analyst Blake Bos focuses on 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD ) , and takes a look at the type of 3-D printing technology used in each tier of its product lineup. Then, he tells investors how 3D Systems' technology stacks up against its competition.
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Report this Comment On October 11, 2013, at 2:39 PM, analyze224 wrote:
This piece raises an interesting and important question. 3D Systems is often praised for its broad range of printers and associated 3D business lines, (materials and printing services). Yes, generally speaking, all else being equal, a company that isn't dependent on a single product or a couple of products, but rather offers several products and/or services for sale - is thought to be in a better position than less diversified peers.
However, companies that specialize and really put out great products and services for sale can sometimes be more valuable than companies that do okay or poorly with a bunch of products.
Does anyone really know what is selling well among 3D Systems' products? Is there ever a breakdown offered up among sales of their different professional printers?
It's far easier to do ones' homework and track consumer printer sales and satisfaction than to do so among the professional, industrial grade printers. Speaking of which - sales and satisfaction re the Cube and Cube X seem to be rather poor if you are to judge by the number and color of reviews on Amazon and other online retailers, and when you consider that the Cube has yet to make a meaningful brick and mortar chain debut.
Maybe things are going well on the industrial end, but for a company that doesn't shy from promoting itself and trumpeting its every potentially positive development, there sure is a shortage of specifics regarding sales deals and applications.... We hear about the distributor contracts with great fanfare and this news drives the stock price - but not much about what's happening with actual sales. Which large companies are new customers? Are they placing significant orders? What are they using the printers for? (Actual significant scale end-use manufacturing)?
Stratysis mgmt, on their last earnings call, while remaining quiet about the identity of their then new, large industrial/ manufacturer customer, had a credible and exciting disclosure to make re a significant, unexpected order from a very large company, (a Fortune 500 co, was it?)... and indicated that these printers were to be used for manufacturing. This was actual news...ie something that hadn't been reported before and appeared to be both substantial in its magnitude and implications.
Maybe DDD is managing great things... but a stock price that retests prodigious highs and resellers willing to make an effort to sell products with seemingly little to lose - doesn't prove it!.
Thanks for this video piece.
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