Technology is where it’s at, and the next stage of that technology, it seems, lies in 3D technology.
One of the prime movers in that field is Rock Hill, South Carolina-based 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD), which announced this week it would be taking part in a major technology conference early in September in New York. At the Citi Global Technology Conference, CFO and Senior Vice-President Damon Gregoire will be briefing delegates on what major strides the company has taken in a short period of time.
One of the more recent strides involved the company going the acquisition route, picking up last week U.K.-based CRDM Ltd. a leading provider of rapid prototyping and rapid tooling services. The company designs, prototypes and manufactures parts and tooling for a variety of automotive, aerospace, medical device and motorsports applications, including Formula One.
The week before that, 3D announced that its Cubify® Sculpt, was on the market. The virtual clay sculpting tool transforms 3D modeling from a complex, skills-centric design experience to a simple, intuitive sculpting delight for everyone. Cubify Sculpt, powered by 3D Systems' volumetric CAD engine, is lauded by the company as being "ideal for the freeforming of organic shapes with ready-to-print output."
Cubify Sculpt packs a powerful feature set that includes embossing with textures, adding colour with paint for full-colour 3D printing, intuitive push and pull tools to sculpt in virtual clay and accurate symmetry settings for designing organic shapes.
Early in August, as if to kick off what the company envisioned to be an event-packed month, 3D Systems acquired TeamPlatform, a leading cloud-based, collaborative design and project management platform.
TeamPlatform, to quote the news release on August 6, "allows product design, engineering services and manufacturing companies to easily manage hundreds of small or large projects with masses of data being shared and used concurrently."
3D Systems is a leading provider of 3D content-to-print solutions including 3D printers, print materials and on-demand custom parts services for professionals and consumers alike. The company also provides CAD, reverse engineering and inspection software tools and consumer 3D printers, apps and services.
In July, the company announced second-quarter numbers that proved very encouraging. Revenue grew 45% from the prior year to $120.8 million on a 108% increase in printers' and other products revenue. Gross profit hiked 46% and gross profit margin expanded 40 basis points to 51.8%, contributing to GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) net income of $9.3 million, and a non-GAAP net income improvement of 36% over the 2012 quarter to $19.0 million.
DDD stock closed Friday at $51.40, down $1.51, or nearly 2.9% from Thursday’s close, having peaked for the past 52 weeks at $54.08 on Monday. The gully of $21.57 a share was plumbed late last September. The stock price’s progress since then – and all the developments mentioned above -- suggests the company is headed off into yet another "dimension"
