3D Systems announced a collaboration with Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division to develop new alloys. The two companies are developing Copper-Nickel (CuNi) and Nickel-Copper (NiCu) alloys for direct metal printing.
3D Systems’ (DDD) co-founder Chuck Hull said, “Customer-centric innovation has been a driving force for 3D Systems since its founding. Through our on-going collaboration with Newport News Shipbuilding, we have yet another opportunity to bring to bear our deep materials science and application engineering expertise – allowing our customers to maximize the power of additive manufacturing within their organization.”
CuNi and NiCu are ideal for marine uses as these alloys are resistant to corrosion. Current casting methods for these alloys require lead times of up to 12 months. With metal 3D printing these lead times can be shortened to only a fraction of the traditional procurement time.
Dave Bolcar, Vice President of engineering and design for Newport News Shipbuilding said, “Over the past few years, our companies have collaborated to support the qualification of metal additive manufacturing technologies in order to build parts for naval warships and conducted research and development of a corrosion performance design guide for direct metal printing of a nickel-based alloy. We’re looking forward to expanding on these efforts.” (See 3D Systems stock analysis on TipRanks)
3D Systems has long-term experience of contributing additive manufacturing know-how to the U.S. Navy. Its solutions are used in aircraft parts and submersible components.
On March 2, Needham analyst James Ricchiuti reiterated a Hold rating on the stock without assigning any price target. Ricchiuti said, “Investor sentiment in the 3D printing space has been improving in recent months, reflecting signs of a gradual industry recovery and in the case of 3D Systems more optimism about new management’s efforts to restart growth and drive operating leverage in the model. There is potential for more significant upside in earnings coming mainly from cost-reduction initiatives going forward.”
Turning to rest of the Street, 3D Systems has a Hold consensus rating based on 6 Holds and 1 Sell. The average analyst price target of $26.50 implies about 11.2% downside potential from current levels. The stock has seen a jump of about 332.6% over the past year.
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