Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) vs. 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) Critical Contrast

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) and 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Lincoln Electric and 3D Systems, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lincoln Electric	0	4	5	1	2.70
3D Systems	1	1	3	0	2.40

Lincoln Electric presently has a consensus target price of $306.78, suggesting a potential upside of 18.36%. 3D Systems has a consensus target price of $5.50, suggesting a potential upside of 89.66%. Given 3D Systems’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe 3D Systems is more favorable than Lincoln Electric.

Risk & Volatility

Lincoln Electric has a beta of 1.21, meaning that its stock price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, 3D Systems has a beta of 2.77, meaning that its stock price is 177% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lincoln Electric and 3D Systems”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lincoln Electric	$4.23 billion	3.34	$520.53 million	$10.01	25.89
3D Systems	$386.90 million	1.25	$29.88 million	($0.41)	-7.07

Lincoln Electric has higher revenue and earnings than 3D Systems. 3D Systems is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lincoln Electric, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Lincoln Electric and 3D Systems’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lincoln Electric	12.35%	39.23%	15.25%
3D Systems	-14.15%	-19.56%	-8.92%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

79.6% of Lincoln Electric shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.5% of 3D Systems shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of Lincoln Electric shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of 3D Systems shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Lincoln Electric beats 3D Systems on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lincoln Electric

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells welding, cutting, and brazing products worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Americas Welding, International Welding, and The Harris Products Group. It offers brazing and soldering filler metals, arc welding equipment, plasma and oxyfuel cutting systems, wire feeding systems, fume control equipment, welding accessories, and specialty gas regulators, and education solutions, as well as a portfolio of automated solutions for joining, cutting, material handling, module assembly, and end of line testing, as well as involved in brazing and soldering alloys, and in the retail business in the United States. In addition, the company manufactures copper and aluminum headers, distributor assemblies, and manifolds for the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning sector in the United States and Mexico; provides specialty welding consumables, wear plates and maintenance and repair services for alloy and wear-resistant products used in mining, steel, agricultural, and industrial mill applications; and designs and manufactures robotic assembly and arc welding systems that automate the tacking and welding of steel beams. Further, the company serves general fabrication, oil and gas, power generation, process, automotive and transportation, and construction and infrastructure industries, as well as heavy fabrication, ship building, and maintenance and repair markets. It sells its products directly to users of welding products, as well as through industrial distributors, retailers, and agents. The company was founded in 1895 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

About 3D Systems

3D Systems Corporation provides 3D printing and digital manufacturing solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company offers 3D printers technologies, such as stereolithography, selective laser sintering, direct metal printing, multi jet printing, color jet printing, polymer extrusion, and extrusion and SLA based bioprinting that transform digital data input generated by 3D design software, computer aided design (CAD) software, or other 3D design tools into printed parts. It also develops, blends, and markets various print materials, such as plastic, nylon, metal, composite, elastomeric, wax, polymeric dental materials, and biocompatible materials. In addition, the company provides digital design tools, including software, scanners, and haptic devices, as well as solutions for product design, simulation, mold and die design, 3D scan-to-print, reverse engineering, production machining, metrology, and inspection and manufacturing workflows under the Geomagic brand. Further, it offers 3D Sprint and 3DXpert, a proprietary software to prepare and optimize CAD data and manage the additive manufacturing processes, which provides automated support building and placement, build platform management, print simulation, and print queue management; and Bioprint Pro, a software solution that allows researchers to design and bioprint repeatable experiments. Additionally, the company provides maintenance and training services; manufacturing services; and software and precision healthcare services. It primarily serves companies and small and midsize businesses in medical, dental, automotive, aerospace, durable goods, government, defense, technology, jewelry, electronic, education, consumer goods, energy, biotechnology, and other industries through direct sales force, channel partners, and appointed distributors. 3D Systems Corporation was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Rock Hill, South Carolina.