What Happened?

Shares of 3D printing company 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD) jumped 23% in the morning session after the company announced a deal with Daimler Trucks and Buses to improve the production of spare parts using additive manufacturing. Through this partnership, Daimler will use 3D Systems' expertise in additive manufacturing to produce hard-to-find components like fuse box covers. These parts often face sourcing delays during vehicle production, causing bottlenecks in the supply chain. 

The market for additive manufacturing in the automotive sector is expected to grow from $2.9 billion in 2022 to $7.9 billion by 2027, according to Markets and Markets. This deal highlights significant progress and underscores DDD's strong position in the market.

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What The Market Is Telling Us

3D Systems’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 65 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for 3D Systems and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business. 

The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 2 months ago when the stock dropped 22.4% on the news that the company reported preliminary third-quarter sales results which fell below Wall Street's expectations. The sales weakness was attributed to macro factors that affected the demand for hardware systems. The company also noted that there were delays in closing some transactions, which resulted in the affected deals being pushed to the fourth quarter. Overall, the results indicate the company is yet to overcome some of the challenges that have contributed to the declining sales recorded in the previous quarters.

3D Systems is up 19.1% since the beginning of the year, but at $3.81 per share, it is still trading 33.7% below its 52-week high of $5.75 from February 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of 3D Systems’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $334.80.

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