Oftentimes our overworked MBAs will be writing about a stock and say something like “Stock Y had a great return of +56% over the past rolling year.” We’re always quick to point out that without a reference point, that return means absolutely nothing. If a broader market index returned +75% over the same time frame, then that means someone who invested in Stock Y could have simply invested in the broader market index and realized a better return at a much lower risk due to the diversification effect. So, when we talk about the performance of 3D printing stocks, we need some sort of reference point. We also need to consider time frames. If we start from the day each stock begins trading, that makes comparisons a bit difficult. Instead, let’s go back four years ago to an article we published on July 14th, 2015 titled “Is Now the Time to Invest in 3D Printing Stocks?”
In that article, we talked about the Gartner Hype Cycle and how 3D printing stocks were plummeting towards the trough of disillusionment having suffered massive losses in just a single year’s time. Four years have now passed – and several weeks to be exact – so we decided to look and see how these stocks have fared. Here’s what those returns look like (4-year return) and also the year-to-date returns: