World has witnessed revolution in manufacturing and fabrication of things through the technology known as three-dimensional printing or 3D. The credit once again goes to young and budding companies to innovate and develop this technology to a level that its practical and commercial usage became a reality. Since 3D printing technology has created a market, the bigger players are ready to get a firm hold on it. Recent Jefferies report indicates how this would impact present market leaders in 3D printing.

The list of new players is briskly getting bigger. Hewlett-Packard, Ricoh, Canon, Autodesk, Epson and a number of other companies would become major impact players. As per Jefferies report, the breather for the current 3D printing companies is that the new comers would not be making any significant impact for the next couple of years at least. The report highlights that the two top companies, 3D Systems Corp (NYSE:DDD) and Stratasys Ltd (NASDAQ:SSYS), which can bear the tough competition might eventually end up buying themselves.

The stocks of 3D Systems Corp (NYSE:DDD) have always remained extremely volatile and investors might take this opportunity to re-evaluate their investment. The company uses 3D printers to manufacture parts by taking data input either from the format of computer assisted design produced software or 3D scanning and molding devices.  Last year, demand of 3D printing was unbelievably high and the shares were sold in early spring and in October like hot cakes. Analysts at Jefferies are confident about the strength of company’s product portfolio but in the wake of stiff competition the firm will have to decrease its product prices to stay in the market. Shareholders of 3D Systems have received a trivial dividend of 0.8 percent. Thus the price target on the Buy-rated stock has been decreased by Jefferies to $ 42 from $46. Whereas, estimated price target $46.30 was given by Thomson. However, shares of 3D systems closed at $34.91 on Wednesday.

For the last two years, Stratasys Ltd (NASDAQ: SSYS) also remained another super performer and leading company in the domain of 3D printing. The company’s products experienced high demand and its stocks remained extremely volatile. Stratasys joined hands with eBay last year with the objective of marketing and selling its 3D printing services through ever powerful e-commerce platform. In doing so the company endeavored to generate its Makerbot awareness and even Martha Stewart was interested in the new 3D printing technology.

 

According to the report by Jefferies, 3D printing and services is although on a fast track towards maturity but is still in its initial growth. Therefore, Jefferies along with others on Wall Street have given more importance to metrics on the basis of sales. The report predicts that even under the toughest competition, the Stratasys Ltd (NASDAQ: SSYS) has the potential to retain its position. Price target by Jefferies is $155 for Buy-rated stocks, while price target (consensus) is $133.71. However, closing price of stock was $103.21 on Wednesday.

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