By Poco a poco (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons
Wall Street by Poco a poco (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons
After its first month of trading, has ExOne proved itself to be a potential 3D printing tech market leader?ExOne has been on the market for a month and has already caused a stir.
After arriving on the markets in February with its initial public offering (IPO), ExOne (NASDAQ: XONE) could potentially be the cat among the pigeons when it comes to the world's biggest listed 3D printing companies.
On February 7th 2013, shares of ExOne staged the biggest first-day rise so far in 2013, as the firm engaged investor enthusiasm for 3D printing. Shares rallied by 47 per cent to $26.52 per unit on the tech-heavy NASDAQ - the biggest gains in a debut since SolarCity Corp in December.
So what is ExOne's edge over other major market players such as Statasys and 3D Systems? The company claims that its expertise in metals over plastics in the 3D printing arena is what makes it stand out from the crowd.
ExOne claims plastics-based prototype 3D printing is now commonplace, but it is the emerging metals side of the industry that should drive accelerating adoption and relative growth.
Although 3D printing with metal is not new, metals-based printing has been the domain of laser-based systems, while ExOne's jet head technology is said to be less expensive and faster than other systems and so appeals to a large portion of the industrial market.
The company believes its margins will grow if machine installations and printing services utilisation rise as anticipated and financial services experts BB&T Capital Markets is confident there is reason to get excited about ExOne's outlook on the NASDAQ.
It stated that demand for 3D printing equipment and services is growing faster than global output as a result of rising functionality, expanding materials and falling output costs bringing the advantages of the technology into reach of more applications and end markets.
BB&T stated: "We expect this relative growth to continue, which should benefit ExOne. Further, use of metals in the production of tooling/castings and final parts (versus prototyping) is at a much earlier stage of the growth cycle. As a result, we would expect ExOne to grow faster than the broader 3D printing sector as well."
Whether ExOne will prove to be a major competitor against 3D Systems and Statasys remains to be seen, and at the tail end of its first varied month of trading its unit price is steadying at $26.65 - on par with its first-day share value.
