Semiconductor Equipment Provider Aehr test systems (ahr) topped Wall Street’s targets for the fiscal third quarter late Thursday, thanks to strong demand for equipment used to test power chips for electric vehicles. Aehr stock gained in extended trading.
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The Fremont, Calif.-based company earned an adjusted 16 cents per share on revenue of $17.2 million for the quarter ended February 28. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected Aehr earnings of 14 cents a share on sales of $16 million. Year over year, Aehr’s earnings rose 45% while revenue rose 13%.
For the fiscal year ending May 31, Aehr reiterated its revenue guidance of at least $60 million to $70 million. That would mean growth of at least 18% to 38% year over year. It said profit margins would be similar to last year.
Aehr manufactures semiconductor test and reliability qualification equipment. Its recent growth has been in systems for testing and burn-in of silicon carbide or SiC power chips, mainly for electric vehicles. Burn-in is a stress test of a component to detect problems.
Aehr stock rises after report
In after-hours trading on the stock market today, Aehr shares are up 2.6% to 38.20. During Thursday’s regular session, Aehr shares fell 1.7% to close at 37.22.
“Aehr had another great quarter, with sales and net income beating consensus estimates,” said Chief Executive Gayn Erickson in a press release. “Our momentum in silicon carbide wafer level burn-in continues to increase.”
In addition to manufacturers of silicon carbide chips, Aehr works with several suppliers of gallium nitride semiconductors. These gallium nitride chip manufacturers make products such as radio frequency and power devices.
“We believe that gallium nitride will be a significant market,” said Erickson. It will be driven by high-volume applications such as high-frequency amplifiers, power converters and consumer electronics chargers, solar inverters, and electric vehicle chargers and converter applications, he said.
Longer term, Aehr is excited about manufacturing test and qualification equipment for the emerging silicon photonics market, Erickson said.
Aehr shares are on two IBD lists
According to the information provided, Aehr shares have the best possible IBD Composite Rating of 99 IBD inventory check. This puts it in the top 1% of stocks based on key fundamental and technical metrics over the past 12 months.
In addition, Aehr shares are on the IBD 50 and stock listings from IBD Tech Leaders.
On March 22, Aehr stock broke out of a fourth level consolidation pattern with a buy point of 37.67, according to IBD MarketSmith charts. It hit a record high of 40.69 the next day before pulling back.
Follow Patrick Seitz on Twitter at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories about consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.
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