3-D Printing is all the Rage on Wall Street

It looks like 3-D printing has come of age. Fantastic growth in share prices for the manufacturers of 3-D printing equipment has attracted the attention of some of Wall Street's biggest banks. Analysts at Deutsche Bank AG, Jeffries LLC, Credit Suisse Group AG, JP Morgan Chase, Piper Jaffray Cos. and Citigroup Inc. have started covering 3-D printer manufacturers, The Wall Street Journal reported. Piper Jaffray analyst Troy Jenson told the journal that 3-D printing socks are a sleepy universe small cap stocks that suddenly taken off. Some of the hot 3-D printing stocks that analysts are following include: • Stratasys Ltd SSYS a leader in inkjet based 3-D printing. Stratasys's shares have been on a tear lately. At midday on Dec. 12, Stratasys was trading at $121.10 a share and it was up 1.97% or $2.34 a share. So it's easy to see why analysts are interested in this company. • 3D Systems Corporation DDD which isn't exactly a 3D printing company. Instead 3D Systems makes advanced imaging technology used in 3D printing. Like DDD 3D showed incredible share growth on Dec. 12, rising by $2.57 or 3.32% a share to $80.10 at midday. • ExOne XONE which specializes in machines that make metal parts for manufacturers in what is known as digital part materialization. ExOne's shares were also up on Dec. 12, 2013, rising 32¢ or .58% to $54.32 by midday. • Voxeljet VJET a German manufacturer of 3D printing systems that went public in August. Voxeljet's shares were up by 1.73% or 64¢ on Dec. 12 to $37.59 a share. Voxeljet's share price is also a perfect illustration of how volatile 3D printing stocks still are. On Nov. 15, its share price rose to $58.99 before taking a tumble to $33.82 on Nov. 21. 3D printing might be the future of manufacturing but Voxeljet proves that 3D printing shares are not for the faint of heart. If you don't like risk you should stay away from this sector.