Friday, August 1, 2014

3D Systems Downgraded to 2D (DDD)

The stock was down $5.94 (10.59%) yesterday and is off another 3% in early pre-market action this morning, $48.55 last.
The headline is a play on a book titled Flattened Fauna which is a guide to roadkill, critters that have not only lost their lives but their third dimension.
From Barron's:

FBR Cuts 3D Systems To Hold; Others See Hope
Analysts reactions to 3D Systems’ (DDD) disappointing quarter are beginning to trickle in.
FBR Capital Markets’ Ajay Kejriwal downgraded the stock on the news, cutting his rating from Outperform to Market Perform and dramatically reducing his target price from $83 to $48.
Kejriwal writes that he was dismayed to see organic revenue growth slowing to 10% and gross margin compression, and while he accepts some of management’s explanations, ultimately he sees risk to the 25%-30% organic growth that many investors are expecting. Specifically he sees increased competition in stereolithography (SLA) and selective laser sintering (SLS) and that consumer demand may not be as great as some investors are hoping.

He concludes that “we fully expect3D Systems to remain a dominant player in the evolving 3D printing landscape and expect rapid growth in the company’s metal printing and healthcare-related businesses. However, those businesses are relatively small, and a slowdown in the much larger legacypolymer/prototyping markets would be a drag on overall growth and profitability. Read more highlights:
Surprising growth slowdown, especially in context of increased spend. While we appreciate the reasons provided (delay in product launches, build in backlog, etc.) for the slowdown, we note that revenues in the quarter missed consensus by roughly $11 million whereas backlog only increased by $3 million sequentially. We also note that Consumer is only about 5% of revenues, and delays in launch of new consumer products perhaps only explain a tiny portion of the shortfall. The slowdown is particularly noteworthy given the sharp increase in SG&A expense starting 4Q last year that ostensibly was aimed at driving organic growth. We suspect two other factors in play: (1) slowing demand from the professional/production customers partly reflecting consolidation among service centers, and (2) share gains by new competitors operating at lower price points....MUCH MORE
We are not fans of 3D Systems, preferring Arcam (AMAVF) or even Stratasys.
On the other hand DDD is up 2000% in the last five years.
Chart for3D Systems Corp. (DDD)