Semiconductor equipment vendor Aehr Test Systems late Thursday beat Wall Street's targets for its fiscal first quarter but kept its outlook unchanged for the full year. Aehr stock fell in extended trading.
The Fremont, Calif.-based company earned an adjusted 18 cents a share on sales of $20.6 million in the quarter ended Aug. 31. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected Aehr earnings of 16 cents a share on sales of $19.2 million. On a year-over-year basis, Aehr earnings jumped 260% while sales surged 93%.
For the fiscal year ending May 31, Aehr reiterated its prior outlook for revenue of at least $100 million, up over 50% year over year. The chip gear firm expects GAAP net income of at least $28 million, representing earnings growth of greater than 90% year over year.
"We finished the first quarter with solid revenue and non-GAAP net income, the strongest first quarter in our history, which has historically been our seasonally softest quarter," Chief Executive Gayn Erickson said in a news release.
He added, "We are off to a very good start to our fiscal year and are reaffirming our expectation to grow fiscal full-year revenue by at least 50% and profit by over 90% year over year."
Aehr Stock Falls After First-Quarter Report
In after-hours trading on the stock market today, Aehr stock dropped 12.7% to 38.59. During the regular session Thursday, Aehr stock slid 2.1% to close at 44.21.
Aehr makes semiconductor test and reliability qualification equipment. Its recent growth has come from systems for test and burn-in of silicon-carbide power chips, mostly for electric vehicles. Burn-in is a stress test of a component to detect problems.
Aehr's customers use its equipment to test chips for electric vehicles as well as solar power and industrial applications.
"We continue to see increased interest from prospective new customers for our solutions for silicon carbide wafer level burn-in," Erickson said. "It is a very exciting time in the silicon carbide and electric vehicle markets right now and we have never been busier."
Aehr stock has formed a cup-with-handle base with a buy point of 53.05, according to IBD MarketSmith charts.
Further, Aehr stock is on the IBD Tech Leaders list.
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