As Q4 earnings season comes to a close, it’s time to take stock of this quarter's best and worst performers amongst the semiconductor manufacturing stocks, including Amtech (NASDAQ:ASYS) and its peers.
The semiconductor industry is driven by demand for advanced electronic products like smartphones, PCs, servers and data storage. The growth of data and technologies like artificial intelligence, 5G networks and smart cars are also creating a next wave of growth for the industry. To keep up with ever changing customer needs requires new tools that can design, fabricate and test at ever smaller sizes and more complex architectures, and that is driving the demand for semiconductor capital manufacturing equipment.
The 14 semiconductor manufacturing stocks we track reported a slower Q4; on average, revenues beat analyst consensus estimates by 2.62%, while on average next quarter revenue guidance was 3.47% above consensus. Investors abandoned cash burning companies since high interest rates will make it harder to raise capital and while some of the semiconductor manufacturing stocks have fared somewhat better than others, they have not been spared, with share prices declining 6.68% since the previous earnings results, on average.
Amtech (NASDAQ:ASYS)
Focusing on Silicon Carbide and Power Semiconductor sectors, Amtech Systems (NASDAQ:ASYS) produces machinery and related chemicals needed for manufacturing semiconductors.
Amtech reported revenues of $21.6 million, down 21.1% year on year, in line with analyst expectations. It was a weak quarter for the company, with declining revenue and operating margin.
“While the uncertain macroeconomic outlook and timing of capacity expansion projects are creating near-term softness for our advanced packaging and SMT products, demand for EV applications remained robust, with customer orders of $25.2 million during our first quarter of fiscal 2023. Together with our recent acquisition of Entrepix, we are confident that our strategy to align our divisions to high-growth megatrend markets, such as EV and silicon carbide is gaining traction. We believe this strategic alignment to megatrend growth areas across multiple product and customer touchpoints creates a strong and durable foundation for value creation in the coming years,” commented Mr. Michael Whang, Chief Executive Officer of Amtech.
The stock is down 15.4% since the results and currently trades at $9.07.
Read our full report on Amtech here, it's free.
Best Q4: Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI)
Headquartered in Israel, Nova (NASDAQ: NVMI) is a provider of quality control systems used in semiconductor manufacturing.
Nova reported revenues of $151.2 million, up 24.5% year on year, beating analyst expectations by 2.31%. It was a strong quarter for the company, with very optimistic guidance for the next quarter and a significant improvement in inventory levels.
The stock is up 7.5% since the results and currently trades at $98.05.
Is now the time to buy Nova ? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free.
Weakest Q4: Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL)
Moving away from a low margin storage device management chips in one of the biggest semiconductor business model pivots of the past decade, Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) is a fabless designer of special purpose data processing and networking chips used by data centers, communications carriers, enterprises, and autos.
Marvell Technology reported revenues of $1.42 billion, up 5.62% year on year, in line with analyst expectations. It was a weak quarter for the company, with underwhelming revenue guidance for the next quarter and a decline in operating margin.
The stock is down 14.5% since the results and currently trades at $39.5.
Read our full analysis of Marvell Technology's results here.
Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX)
Founded in 1980 by David Lam, who pioneered semiconductor etching technology, Lam Research (NASDAQ:LCRX) is one of the leading providers of the wafer fabrication equipment used to make semiconductors.
Lam Research reported revenues of $5.28 billion, up 24.9% year on year, beating analyst expectations by 3.83%. It was a weaker quarter for the company, with underwhelming revenue guidance for the next quarter and an increase in inventory levels.
The stock is up 0.49% since the results and currently trades at $490.8.
Read our full, actionable report on Lam Research here, it's free.
FormFactor (NASDAQ:FORM)
With customers across the foundry and fabless markets, FormFactor (NASDAQ:FORM) is a US-based provider of test and measurement technologies for semiconductors.
FormFactor reported revenues of $166 million, down 19% year on year, beating analyst expectations by 6.89%. It was a decent quarter for the company, with a significant improvement in inventory levels but declining revenue.
FormFactor pulled off the strongest analyst estimates beat among the peers. The stock is up 2.21% since the results and currently trades at $29.59.
Read our full, actionable report on FormFactor here, it's free.
The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned