Additive manufacturing is clearly an up and coming industry. Some investors, and tech insiders have compared 3D printing to the first and second industrial revolutions. If that’s the case, stocks of various companies 
Earlier this year, 3D printing stocks like 3D Systems, Stratasys, ExOne, and Voxel Jet may have gotten a bit ahead of themselves. Skeptics were claiming that the 3D printing market was a bubble, similar to, but not as severe as that of the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s-2000. Whether they were right or not, who knows, and frankly who cares, but the markets reacted, perhaps spurred by short sellers. Within a matter of three to four months we saw several 3D printing stocks drop as much as 60% or more from their highs back in January. In the midst of the drop, several well known analysts were quoted as being bears of the industry.
“The 3-D-printing industry isn’t revolutionary, it’s evolutionary,” said Andrew Left, a notable short seller and chief of Citron Research. “In a hot market like this, you get a good story. It just captures peoples’ imaginations, but in this case it also captures peoples’ dollars.”
This was mild compared to a Bank of America Analyst’s opinion on 3D Systems.
“It’s going to be a single-digit stock in two to three years,” he said. “3D Systems is a joke because it’s a roll-up of third- and fourth-generation technology. The reason they are doomed is because they can’t roll anything up anymore.”
Like all markets eventually do, most of the 3D printing related stocks hit a bottom sometime around April, and slowly began to regain their ground. The last two weeks have seen several 3D printing stocks jump in value, as investors took advantage of much cheaper entry points as compared to earlier in the year. This has all led up to today, where we have seen the biggest one day gains yet for several stocks within the 3D printing space. At 
- 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD) +$4.70, up 7.86%
- ExOne Co (NASDAQ:XONE) +$4.85, up 12.4%
- Voxeljet AG (ADR) (NYSE:VJET) +4.03, up 19.25%
- Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) +$5.77, up 5.08%
- Proto Labs Ince. (NYSE:PRLB) +$4.13, up 5.04%
As you can see there is an overall market frenzy today for 3D printing related securities. Whether this is due to a short squeeze, recent positive news within the industry, or just a technical turnaround, there are certainly many happy 3D printing investors out there today. It will be interesting to see what’s in store for the market for the remainder of the week.
Do you own any of these stocks? Which? Will you continue to hold? Let’s hear your opinion in the 3D printing stock forum thread on 3DPB.com.
