Top 10 Additive Manufacturing And 3D Printing Stock to Watch (September 2023)

A New Manufacturing Age

For ages, the way to manufacture items in metal or plastic has been reliant on either forging or molding technologies. In recent years, an entirely new concept emerged: 3D printing (also called additive manufacturing).

3D printing slowly adds layer-by-layer the material into the final design, instead of pouring molten materials and waiting for them to take the shape of the mold. It allows it to create complex shapes and products that traditional methods simply cannot achieve.

This technology is expected to be more and more adopted by the industry. Research reports envision additive manufacturing to maintain a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21%, and boast a market size in excess of $77B. Ark Invest even declared that “3D printing will be a $500 billion market opportunity”.

This is also a sector that became extremely popular in 2013-2014, leading to a high valuation that subsequently crashed. 10 years later, the sector is now more mature and becoming more and more part of everyday industrial processes. You read more about 3D printing applications in our dedicated article as well.

Top 10 3D Printing Stock to Watch

Xometry, Inc. (XMTR)

Xometry is an AI-enabled marketplace for industrial manufacturing. Its goal is to create a massive and liquid marketplace for industrial components and on-demand design. This is known as a very inefficient market, with a lot of time consumed by finding vendors, and then requesting and comparing quotes.

The company is active in 3D printing, but also CNC machining, cutting. It is active in multiple industries, including aerospace, medical, automotive, industrial, government agencies (including defense), and robotics.

Xometry is currently mostly focused on the US, but has rapidly expanded its international footprint, with now 11% of revenues coming from Europe and Asia. The European expansion is in part driven by the acquisition of the on-demand marketplace Tridi for $3.8M, following the previous acquisition of manufacturer database Thomasnet for $3000M in 2021.

Xometry’s AI allows for instant pricing and receiving quotes in seconds (instead of days doing it alone), as well as 3D geometry and feature recognition, enhancing the accuracy of the quotes and of the pricing. It also offers a payment system for suppliers to manage their cashflow.

The company is growing rapidly, with 52% CAGR active buyers and 47% CAGR active sellers since 2019.

While not a pure play on 3D printing, the flexibility of Xometry’s quotes system makes it a prime candidate for benefiting from a more widespread adoption of 3D printing and its flexible design capabilities. The company is now looking to acquire the scale and international reach to become the “Amazon of manufacturing”, and if the recent growth can be sustained, it could well achieve that.

3D Systems Corporation (DDD)

3D Systems can print 130 materials, producing more than a million parts per day. 64% of revenues are recurring (material, software subscription, etc…).

47% of the company’s clients in 2021 were new clients, showing the quick growth of the industry and 3D Systems client base. In 2021, the company’s revenues were equally split between industrial and healthcare (mostly prostheses and dental).

It is also working on a 3D bioprinting technology, which could be used to create synthetic organs, with a target for 2026 for the human trial in lung transplant. The addressable market is estimated at $4B.

3D Systems has recently announced the proposal for a merger with its competitor Stratasys. This would put 3D Systems much ahead of its closest competitor, Desktop Metal, also competing for Stratasys. In the case of a merger failure (you can read more about the latest news here), investors will need to re-evaluate which of Desktop Metal or 3D Systems ends up in the best competitive position.

Even in the case of a failure of merger with Stratasys, it is likely that the 3D market will be dominated by the 2 leaders, 3D Systems and Desktop Metal. With the market growing quickly, it is likely that both companies can thrive and take over more of the industrial supply chain equipment market, especially in the context of “re-shoring” industries closer to home and out of China.

Proto Labs, Inc. (PRLB)

Proto Labs is a pioneer in digital manufacturing, launched in 1999. It combines in-house manufacturing capacities (1 million square feet of factories) and a growing network of manufacturing partners.

Proto Labs’ main selling point is very quick lead time, up to just 1 day to receive the freshly ordered parts. This makes it an excellent partner for prototyping or for parts needing to be produced in small volume, like for example urgent repairs, maintenance of rare equipment, or unique and advanced equipment like space probes.

The company’s main business comes from injection molding and CNC machining but with a quickly growing 3D printing activity as well.

Proto Labs has almost quadrupled its revenues since its 2013 IPO, for a total of $488M in 2022. The company’s customer base is diversified, with the main industries being medical, electronics, and aerospace.

Where Xometry is more generalist and targets the whole manufacturing industry, Proto Labs is a more established player with direct control over most of its manufacturing capacity. This should help it stay strong in its niche of prototyping and small-batch manufacturing, where speed, quality, and precision are the most important factors above price.

Nano Dimension Ltd. (NNDM)

Most 3D printing companies focus on metal and plastic, with an eye for complex mechanical parts. Nano Dimension is instead focused on 3D-printed electronics. This includes very specialized technologies like conductive or dielectric inks & ceramics.

For example, these technologies can be used for building optical or radio components. The company claims it can reduce the ecological footprint of manufacturing, with a reduction of 94% in CO2 emissions, 100% in water, 98% in materials, and 82% in chemicals.

Nano Dimension is active in aerospace, automotive electronics, and other sectors.

The company has grown its revenues by 258% CAGR since 2020, or a 12x growth. Part of this growth was driven by a series of acquisitions since 2021 bringing under the same roof multiple electronic 3D printing technologies.

Recently the company has been at the center of a battle for control, between the current management and the asset management firm Murchinson. Management claims that Murchinson’s intention is to acquire the company at a discount, and liquidate the company to “liquidate its cash assets”. The situation could be resolved soon, but until then, investors might want to wait and see that the company will continue to innovate in 3D printing instead of being liquidated.

Desktop Metal, Inc. (DM)

Desktop Metal is another large 3D printing leader, with 650+ patents, 250+ possible materials, and 6,000 customers. One of its key centers of focus has been metal 3D printing, a target long sought after by the 3D printing industry.

It is also active in healthcare, starting from its acquisition of German EnvisionTEC, which includes dental care technology. This comes in tandem with a strategic partnership with the orthodontic leading firm Align Technology.

The merger with EnvisionTEC also helped Desktop Metal to develop its Desktop Health 3D printer. It is more of a scaffold printer than a full cell/organ 3D printer, but if bioprinting turns out to permanently require hydrogel or other polymers as a scaffold, this will be a strong technological advantage for Desktop Health.

Desktop Metal is competing with 3D Systems for a merger with Stratasys. Would that fail, it might end up a lot smaller than the resulting 3D + Stratasys, and potentially struggle to achieve the right scale.

No matter the result of the merger, Desktop Metal has recently launched a $100m cost reduction program. For now, it is still loss-making and has relied on the sale of convertible bonds to make ends meet.

Investors in Desktop Metal will be hoping for a turnaround in profitability, potentially driven by a merger with Stratasys. They will also want to pay close attention to financial data and cash available.

Materialise NV (MTLS)

Materialise is a 3D printer with a strong software component, with its ranking #1 among additive manufacturing (3D printing) software.

It is also a company with a strong component of healthcare, making up 39% of revenues, much higher than comparable 3D systems or Desktop Metal. Materialise is doing most of its business in Europe, followed by the Americas.

Materialise is somewhat profitable, only sometimes with a negative income due to massive R&D spending.

The company’s strongest position is in medical, especially footwear, eyewear, and dental. In these segments, it managed to compete efficiently with the larger 3D companies, and grew its medical revenues by 20% year-to-year in Q2 2023. It also grew its EBITDA by 12.2%.

While competitors are focused on growth and as many materials and offers as possible, Materialise has instead focused on profitability and smaller niches like medical products and software.

This makes the stock a good pick for investors uninterested in profitless growth and looking for a smaller and safer stock pick. They will nevertheless be cautious that the bigger players do not manage in the long run to take away market share from Materialise.

Velo3D, Inc. (VLD)

Velo3D is a 3D printing company primarily working on metal 3D printing. The company has been successful at entering this market, achieving almost 20% of the market share in metal 3D printing in 2023, from almost nothing 2 years prior.

More than 1/3 of the company’s revenues come from the space sector (with NASA a new customer in Q2 2023), with the rest being made in the majority of contract manufacturing and automotive.

Part of the success of Velo3D come from proprietary advanced alloys, like HASTELLOY C22 (chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, and iron) or GRCop-42 (copper/chromium/niobium) offering unique features for rocket engines or chemical production.

Another factor is strong hardware/software integration, allowing for easier training in additive manufacturing and a more efficient design process.

The company is still at an early stage, with negative EBITDA and net income. It has been improving its gross margin quickly, but might still need some extra cash injection before reaching the scale it needs to be cash flow positive.

A newcomer in the industry, Velo3D has achieved impressive results in the space industry and advanced metal 3D printing. It might be a strong beneficiary of the growing new space race between the US and China, as well as the growing space private sector.

Still, investors will need to be cautious of the cash position of the company, and expect some level of dilution by new capital raise at some point in the future.

Markforged Holding Corporation (MKFG)

Markforged is a 3D printer manufacturer, coming with a unified software/hardware platform (Digital Forge).

A key technology of Markforged is Continuous Fiber Fabrication (CFF). This unique method of 3D printing allows fiber (plastic of carbon) to achieve physical performance like directional strength equal to or even superior to metal.

Its specialization in advanced composite is the main strength of the company, with a clear goal to change manufacturing practices and see a lot of parts moving away from metal and using lighter more advanced materials.

The company has been growing quickly, with revenues and GAAP gross margin up 50% CAGR since 2015. Still, it is expected to experience large losses in 2023, with $54M operating losses on revenues of $101M.

Investors will need to examine the company’s prospect of reaching profitability, and might want to understand deeper the market position of CFF manufacturing.

Cyfuse Biomedical K.K. (4892.T)

The Japanese company was founded in 2010 and started selling 3D printers to researchers since 2013. What is unique about Cyfuse is that its 3D printers are printing not with ink, metal, or composite, but with living cells.

Its focus is producing tissues and organs without any artificial scaffolding, only the cells themselves, through its S-Spike platform, which would make it the most advanced bioprinting solution on the market. This is an ambitious goal, but also the final form 3D bioprinting will likely adopt over time.

The absence of scaffolding could prove crucial to producing “premium” organs as close as possible to native organs. For now, the technology can only 3D print 2-3cm organ pieces at a time.

It is targeting 4 segments: articulations, liver, nerve, and blood vessels.

It could also be used to create “training” organs for surgeons, helping them learn without risking a patient’s life. This is likely the first market reachable for Cyfuse, as well as biomedical researchers needing testing on part of organs instead of cell cultures.

Cyfuse is for now not profitable (after a brief period of profit in 2021) but is already registering a few million dollars in revenues.

This is a company for patient investors, counting on this technology to become more mainstream, and also improve to the point where it can build full organs at once in one block.

So this is as much a biotech company as a 3D printing company, with a very ambitious goal and massive addressable market if it manages to improve its technology to “print” full organs on demand.

Voxeljet AG (VJET)

Voxeljet is a small German manufacturer of 3D printers. Voxeljet technology relies on “binder/ink jetting”, a process that is able to quickly produce parts, allowing for larger production batches and more diverse materials. It also allows to mix 3D printing and traditional manufacturing methods like casting.

The mix between 3D printing and traditional manufacturing allows for drastically reduced costs and quicker production, while still allowing for the advanced designs of 3D printing.

This lower cost structure helps Voxeljet to be active in sectors not usual for a 3D printing company, like architecture, props for the film industry, museums, or even statues.

It also can produce larger components, with Voxeljet having achieved the largest single-piece titanium casting in the world manufactured using 3D printing (hypersonic grid fin) and the world’s largest 3D printer, for offshore wind applications.

The company derived a bit more than half of its revenues from the sale of 3D printers, and the rest from “services”, where Voxeljet directly printed parts after receiving an order. This creates a sales funnel for Voxeljet, where 90% of customers start ordering some services, before deciding to buy a 3D printer to produce directly in-house.

While impressive technically, Voxeljet’s financial performances are less so, with a massive net income loss in Q2 2023 of $3.6M, on a revenue of $6.8M. This has weighed heavily on the stock price, as the company is expected to have to raise more money, either through debt or selling shares.

So investors in Voxeljet can see it as a bet of 3D printing finding its place inside the traditional manufacturing supply chain, but not replacing it entirely. And calculating that at the recent low stock price, with a very low price-to-sales ratio of 0.36, Voxeljet’s financial issues are already priced-in.

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