3D Systems announced their 2020 financial results, and it’s interesting to see the many effects during that tumultuous year.
While you might think I’m referring to the pandemic, and I am, I’m also referring to the fact that 3D Systems has undergone a massive changeover. During 2020 they replaced their CEO, and the new management has been making big changes throughout the year.
The changes have been ongoing and appear in terms of cuts to less-profitable operations, sales of previously-acquired companies and the mysterious introduction of an entirely new FFF 3D printer.
The changes have been eagerly observed by investors, who have long been waiting for 3D Systems to take off. Part of the reason for their interest in 3D Systems is that for many years it and Stratasys were the only publicly-tradable companies in the 3D print space.
That’s changing, as over the past two years we’ve seen a number of other companies enter the stock market, but for many investors, “DDD” and “SSYS” still represent the heart of public 3D printing companies.
These investors believed the changes made during 2020 were for the good, and I would agree with that assessment, and as a result we’ve seen 3D Systems’ stock price gradually inch upwards. During 2020 the stock spent most of the year hovering in the US$5-8 range, but after investors noted the changes happening in not only 3D Systems but other 3D print companies, DDD hit over US$10 by the end of 2020, and continued on upwards to high an astonishing US$55 in early February. That’s a 10X increase over 2020 values!
Was this speculation valid? With this week’s release by 3D Systems of their finalized 2020 results we see some notable improvements.
They were able somehow in a pandemic raise their revenue in Q4 by over US$4M and even an operating profit in Q4! However, their overall revenue for 2020 was down from US$636.4M in 2019 to US$557.2M in 2020, but that’s not surprising given the situation.
While 3D Systems seems to be in a better place now, with a more focused approach (particularly on the healthcare segment), their stock price continues to drop from the US$55 high, even after the financial results were published.
I have a suspicion this might be due to overly-eager investors driving up the stock price before the results were released, and then being somehow disappointed later. The results are good, but perhaps not 10X good.
The market is a difficult animal at times.
Via 3D Systems
