We recently published a list of 11 Best 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing Stocks to Buy. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) stands against other best 3D printing and additive manufacturing stocks to buy.

3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing Industry Outlook 2025

According to Fortune Business Insights, the international 3D printing market was valued at $19.33 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23.4% to reach 101.4 billion by 2032. The industry is driven by the rapid rise of digitization and increased adoption of advanced technologies. The report indicates that a shift towards smart factories, machine learning, and robotics is expected to fuel demand for the 3D printing and additive manufacturing industry.

Moreover, a report published by the 3D Printing Industry highlighted significant trends moving into 2025. As per the report industry experts expect AI and automation to revolutionize 3D printing workflows through optimizing design, production, and post-processing workflows. AI-powered monitoring systems. In addition, AI-driven designs are also accelerating the creation of lightweight, high-performance components, particularly for aerospace, defense, and automotive applications. These advancements reduce failures, improve efficiency, and unlock new possibilities for complex designs. Industry experts also believe that 2025 will mark the year of full industrialization of additive manufacturing as an industry that will go beyond prototyping to mass production. By 2025, the technology is expected to achieve cost-competitive manufacturing for high-performance applications in sectors such as aerospace, medical, and automotive.

The report also highlighted Sona Dadhania, Principal Technology Analyst at IDTechEx, outlook for the industry. Dadhania has a cautiously optimistic outlook for the 3D printing industry in 2025, emphasizing both challenges and opportunities. She identifies macroeconomic factors as key influences on the industry’s near-term trajectory. In 2024, rising interest rates discouraged the purchase of 3D printing equipment, while broader economic difficulties, particularly in Europe, created significant headwinds. Moreover, Germany, which is a critical market for additive manufacturing, faced notable challenges due to its economic struggles as well. She noted that these unfavorable conditions are likely to persist in 2025, with additional uncertainty arising from potential tariffs that could further hinder adoption, especially among new users.

Story Continues

Despite these obstacles, Dadhania highlights areas of potential growth. She noted that established users who are scaling up their additive manufacturing operations and services are likely to drive progress. The focus will remain on high-value applications, with solutions tailored to meet the demands of industries seeking advanced capabilities.

Our Methodology

To curate the list of 11 best 3D printing and additive manufacturing stocks to buy we used ETFs, financial media reports, and stock screeners. Using these sources we aggregated a list of 3D printing stocks. Next we ranked these stocks in ascending order of the number of hedge fund holders, sourced from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 database. We have also added the analyst upside potential for each stock. Please note that the data was recorded on March 19, 2025.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).Is Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) the best 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing Stock to Buy?

A computer programmer developing a software application for high-performance computing.

Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR)

Analyst Upside Potential: 1.19%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 39

Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) is a computational science and artificial intelligence company that provides software and cloud solutions in simulation, high-performance computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. It also offers a range of services and solutions tailored for 3D printing including Inspire Print3D, which is a specialized tool for additive manufacturing simulation, focusing on selective laser melting. Moreover, after the acquisition of Gen3D, the company has incorporated its Sulis Flow and Sulis Lattice platforms into its Inspire suite.

During the fiscal fourth quarter of 2024, Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) delivered $192.6 million in revenue, up 12.3% year-over-year. The growth was driven by its software segment which grew 15% year-over-year to reach $179.4 million. Moreover, in October 2024, the company announced acquiring Siemens. Conestoga Capital Advisors in its Q4 2024 investor letter stated that Siemens aims to enhance its leadership in industrial software, particularly in simulation, high-performance computing, data science, and artificial intelligence. This aim aligns with Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) as its portfolio will complement Siemens’ Xcelerator platform. It is one of the best 3D printing and additive manufacturing stocks to buy.

Conestoga Capital Advisors stated the following regarding Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR), a leader in design and simulation software, announced on October 31st that it was being acquired by Siemens for $113 per share, representing an equity value of $10.6 billion. The price represented a 19% premium to the stock’s unaffected market price on October 21st and a 13% premium to the stock’s all-time high closing price. The deal valued ALTR at approximately 14X its 2025 revenue and 63X EBITDA.”

Overall, ALTR ranks 5th on our list of best 3D printing and additive manufacturing stocks to buy. While we acknowledge the potential of ALTR as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ALTR but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

View Comments