Stratasys (SSYS +1.65%) has had an incredible year: The stock has rallied 60% year to date, the company has successfully digested its merger with Objet, and it also bought MakerBot, the leading consumer-oriented 3-D printing company.
It's expected that Stratasys will close out 2013 with a strong finish and bring home somewhere between $470 million and $490 million in revenue for the entire year. Although the midpoint of $480 million translates to a 123% increase in revenue growth, this figure should be taken with a grain of salt because it includes Objet's operating results. Instead, if investors want to get a better read on Stratasys' growth rate, they should turn to its organic growth rate, which normalizes any acquisitions. Last quarter, Stratasys' organic growth rate stood at 26%, slightly below the industry growth rate of 28.6% in 2012.
In the year ahead, investors should watch to see whether Stratasys makes an entrance into the metal 3-D printing space, an opportunity that could prove to be quite massive. In the following video, 3-D printing analyst Steve Heller reflects on Stratasys' 2013 and looks forward to the year ahead.
