Top 3D Printing Stocks for Q2 2022

The 3D printing industry is made up of companies that provide products and services capable of manufacturing a range of products. 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, creates physical objects from digital designs. The printing process works by laying down thin layers of material in the form of liquid or powdered plastic, metal, or cement, and then fusing the layers together. Though still too slow for mass production, it is a revolutionary technology that has the potential to disrupt the manufacturing logistics and inventory management industries. The 3D printing industry is comprised of only a handful of companies, including players such as Proto Labs Inc., Faro Technologies Inc., and Desktop Metal Inc.

The industry is so young that it has no meaningful benchmark index. But the performance of these stocks can be compared to the broader market as represented by the Russell 1000 Index. These stocks have not performed well. Stratasys Ltd. (SSYS), the best performing 3D printing stock, has dramatically underperformed the Russell 1000, which has provided a total return of 13.8% over the past 12 months. This market performance number and all statistics in the tables below are as of March 4, 2022.

Here are the top three 3D printing stocks with the best value, fastest sales growth, and the best performance.

Best Value 3D Printing Stocks

These are the 3D printing stocks with the lowest 12-month trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio. For companies in early stages of development or industries suffering from major shocks, this metric can be substituted as a rough measure of a business's value. A business with higher sales could eventually produce more profit when it achieves (or returns to) profitability. The price-to-sales ratio shows how much you're paying for the stock for each dollar of sales generated.

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• Proto Labs Inc.: Proto Labs is an e-commerce-based company that provides digital manufacturing services. It offers 3D printing, injection molding, CNC machining, and sheet metal fabrication.
• 3D Systems Corp.: 3D Systems provides 3D printing solutions. The company offers a range of hardware, software, and materials designed for additive manufacturing. Its products and services are used in a variety of industries and sectors, including aerospace, automotive, semiconductor, healthcare, and more. 3D Systems announced in February two separate acquisitions. The company agreed to acquire Titan Additive LLC, a designer and fabricator of large-format, industrial 3D printers, as well as Kumovis, a German-based additive manufacturing solutions provider for personalized healthcare applications. Financial terms of these transactions, which are both expected to close in April 2022, were not disclosed.
• Materialise NV: Materialise is a Belgium-based provider of additive manufacturing software and 3D printing services. It serves a range of industries, including the healthcare, aerospace, and automotive. The company announced in early January that it has completed its acquisition of Link3D, a global provider of workflow and digital manufacturing software. Materialise first announced its agreement to acquire Link3D in mid-November 2021 for $33.5 million.

Fastest Growing 3D Printing Stocks

These are the 3D printing stocks with the highest YOY sales growth for the most recent quarter. Rising sales can help investors identify companies that are able to grow revenue organically or through other means and find growing companies that have not yet reached profitability. In addition, accounting factors that may not reflect the overall strength of the business can significantly influence earnings per share. However, sales growth can also be potentially misleading about the strength of a business, because growing sales on money-losing businesses can be harmful if the company has no plan to reach profitability.

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• Desktop Metal Inc.: Desktop Metal manufactures 3D printers and related equipment used to build complex parts from metal. It also offers 3D printing software. The company serves a range of industries, including automotive, consumer products, education, and heavy industry.
• Nano Dimension Ltd.: Nano Dimension is an Israel-based 3D printing company focused on developing equipment and software for 3D printed electronics. It develops printers for multilayer printed circuit boards and nanotechnology-based inks. The company serves a range of industries, including consumer electronics, healthcare, aerospace, and automotive. Nano Dimension announced in early January that it has acquired Global Inkjet Systems Ltd., or "GIS", for $18.1 million in cash plus an additional earnout of between $1.3 million and $10.7 million within the next 27 months if GIS achieves certain financial performance goals. GIS is a U.K.-based developer and supplier of high-performance control electronics, software, and ink delivery systems.
• Materialise NV: See above for company description.

3D Printing Stocks With the Best Performance

These are the 3D printing stocks that had the smallest declines in total return over the past 12 months out of the companies we looked at.

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• Stratasys Ltd.: Stratasys offers 3D printing solutions, such as 3D printers, polymer materials, a software ecosystem, and related parts. It serves a variety of industries, including aerospace, automotive, consumer products, and healthcare. The company announced in December the promotion of Vice President of Finance Eitan Zamir to the role of chief financial officer (CFO). He replaces Lilach Payorski, who stepped down after nine years at the company. Zamir joined Stratasys in 2019 from Price Waterhouse Coopers.
• 3D Systems Corp.: See above for company description.
• Materialise NV: See above for company description.

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