Top 3D Printing Stocks for 2023

Ansys, Materialise, and Faro Technologies lead the industry in revenue growth

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Top performing 3D printing stocks include Ansys Inc. (ANSS), 3D Systems Corp. (DDD), and Stratasys Ltd. (SSYS).

3D printing stocks suffered through last year's string of interest rate hikes, with Ansys Inc. being the only company we reviewed to see its stock price rise in the past 12 months. Though the group has rebounded slightly this year, averaging a 7% year-to-date return, it is still slightly underperforming the Russell 1000 Index's 9% return.

Here are the top three 3D printing stocks in each category: best value, fastest growth, and best performance. All data in the tables below are as of May 23.

These are the 3D printing stocks with the lowest 12-month trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio. For companies in the 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.

Source: YCharts

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—growing sales does not guarantee a company will ever reach profitability.

Source: YCharts

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.

Source: YCharts

The 3D printing industry is a young one, and companies are still jockeying for market share or facing consolidation risks. Nonetheless, 3D printing has significant potential to impact a host of other industries.

3D printing businesses may be crucial in helping other companies maximize production efficiencies and reduce their environmental impact, for example. 3D printing can be used to create personalized health care and therapeutic products.

Growth Potential: 3D printing technology is relatively new with potential applications across a range of fields, which is one reason the 3D printing market is expected to roughly triple in size to $44.5 billion by 2026.

Variety of Applications: 3D printing offers companies in several industries, like aerospace, automotive, and medical tech, several operational and logistical advantages. 3D printing technology can help produce prototypes before full-scale production. It also offers more customization options for manufacturing and produces less waste. The breadth of its use cases could insulate 3D printing companies from fluctuating demand trends within specific industries or sectors.

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As of the date this article was written, the author does not own any of the above stocks.

Faro Technologies Inc. "FARO Acquires Sitescape, a Leader in LiDAR Based Scanning Software."

Faro Technologies Inc. "FARO Announces First Quarter Financial Results."

Stratasys Ltd. "Stratasys to Combine with Desktop Metals in Approximately $1.8 Billion All-Stock Transaction."

Ansys Inc. "Ansys Announces Financial Results With Record Q1 ACV, Revenue, Diluted EPS and Operating Cash Flow."

Materialise NV. "Materialise NV Reports First Quarter 2023 Results."

3D Natives. "What Were the 3D Printing Trends in 2022."

Hubs. "3D Printing Trend Report 2023."