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Last week, the next of the Big Three, Stratasys, announced its results for the second quarter, while there were major business announcements from 3D Systems and Stratasys. Despite it being a reasonably enterprising week, however, investors were far from their most bullish and share prices fluctuated for all three companies over the five-day period.
Here's a rundown of what 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD), Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS) and ExOne (NASDAQ:XONE) had to announce and how their share prices were looking at close of play before the weekend.
Stratasys
Stratasys' second-quarter results followed hot on the heels of the report released by 3D Systems the previous week.
The company announced its figures for the April-June period by revealing the three-month timeframe yielded "record results" for the 3D printing industry giant.
Stratasys announced Q2 saw non-GAAP revenue of $106.7 million (£68.8 million) for the three-month period, representing a 20 per cent organic rise over the $88.7 million pro forma revenue recorded for the same timeframe in 2012 after giving effect to the merger with Objet as though it closed on January 1st 2011.
Naturally, the continuing benefits felt as a consequence of the Objet deal, coupled with the boost the company received as a result of its acquisition of MakerBot have contributed to the company's prosperity.
When Wall Street closed for the weekend on Friday (August 9th), shares in Stratasys were down by 3.2 per cent to $95.04 - which is not too shabby, considering the stock leapt from $86.00 to a 52-week high of $98.26 last week, which is still comfortably above the $52.40 year-low experienced in September 2012.
Today, Stratasys has enjoyed a rally, with shares soaring by 3.5 per cent to a new 52-week high of $98.36.
3D Systems
Never one to let the spotlight move too far away, 3D Systems chose last week to announce the news it is performing a new merger. The company is taking over the product design, manufacturing and engineering platform TeamPlatform, integrating its systems into Geomagic Solutions and Cubify.com.
This follows the completion of merger with Phenix Systems, with 3D Systems drawing a line under its acquisition of the French Direct Metal Selective Laser Sintering 3D printer provider last month.
3D Systems was also named in a new report entitled Global 3D Scanning Market Report 2013 to 2018: Devices, Range, Solutions and Services - Worldwide Market Forecasts and Analysis, published by Research and Markets. The company has been profiled among other organisations believed to be leading the 3D scanning industry in the publication, which anticipates the market will expand by 14.6 per cent to $4.1 billion (£2.65 billion) by 2018.
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At the end of last week, 3D Systems closed on sure footing, ending the week at $47.44 per unit, gradually regaining ground after the spike to $50.52 experienced at the end of July - the company's 52-week high.
This morning, the Rock Hill, California-based business witnessed its share price rally by 1.7 per cent to $48.26 per unit.
ExOne
ExOne is the final of our big three to have second-quarter results to impart and it is due to be releasing this information very shortly, with the obligatory conference call to follow tomorrow morning.
But ExOne is not sitting on its hands in the run up to releasing this information, as the company has announced that in collaboration with rp+m it has added bonded tungsten to its metal printing materials portfolio.
ExOne has barely been on the stock market for six months, following its initial public offering in February. Therefore, as the company's stock performance begins to settle, the company's Q2 results will be under intense scrutiny.
As such, ExOne's share price closed flat at $65.70 per unit at the end of the day on Friday, which is still a head lower than the $71.25 52-week high it achieved last month. Today, ExOne's shares soared by four per cent to $68.35 ahead of its Q2 results announcement, but can the company maintain this lift?