As the Q3 earnings season wraps, let’s dig into this quarter’s best and worst performers in the semiconductor manufacturing industry, including Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) and its peers.
The semiconductor industry is driven by demand for advanced electronic products like smartphones, PCs, servers, and data storage. The need for technologies like artificial intelligence, 5G networks, and smart cars is also creating the next wave of growth for the industry. Keeping up with this dynamism requires new tools that can design, fabricate, and test chips at ever smaller sizes and more complex architectures, creating a dire need for semiconductor capital manufacturing equipment.
The 14 semiconductor manufacturing stocks we track reported a satisfactory Q3. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 2% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was 1.3% below.
In light of this news, share prices of the companies have held steady as they are up 1.7% on average since the latest earnings results.
Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI)
Headquartered in Israel, Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) is a provider of quality control systems used in semiconductor manufacturing.
Nova reported revenues of $179 million, up 38.9% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 4.1%. Overall, it was a very strong quarter for the company with a significant improvement in its inventory levels and revenue guidance for next quarter beating analysts’ expectations.
"Nova delivered another record quarter, exceeding the high end of the guidance in revenue and profit, with robust performance across all our product lines," said Gaby Waisman, President and CEO.
Nova achieved the biggest analyst estimates beat and fastest revenue growth of the whole group. Unsurprisingly, the stock is up 5% since reporting and currently trades at $200.85.
Best Q3: 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 $1.52 billion, up 6.9% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 4%. The business had an exceptional quarter with a significant improvement in its inventory levels and revenue guidance for next quarter exceeding analysts’ expectations.
The market seems happy with the results as the stock is up 17.6% since reporting. It currently trades at $112.94.
Is now the time to buy Marvell Technology? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.
Weakest Q3: Entegris (NASDAQ:ENTG)
With fabs representing the company’s largest customer type, Entegris (NASDAQ:ENTG) supplies products that purify, protect, and generally ensure the integrity of raw materials needed for advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
Entegris reported revenues of $807.7 million, down 9.1% year on year, falling short of analysts’ expectations by 3%. It was a disappointing quarter as it posted revenue guidance for next quarter missing analysts’ expectations.
Entegris delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates in the group. The stock is flat since the results and currently trades at $107.07.
Read our full analysis of Entegris’s results here.
Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB)
Sporting a global footprint of facilities, Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) is a manufacturer of photomasks, templates used to transfer patterns onto semiconductor wafers.
Photronics reported revenues of $222.6 million, down 2.1% year on year. This result surpassed analysts’ expectations by 2.1%. Overall, it was a very strong quarter as it also logged a solid beat of analysts’ EPS estimates and revenue guidance for next quarter slightly topping analysts’ expectations.
The stock is flat since reporting and currently trades at $25.57.
Read our full, actionable report on Photronics here, it’s free.
Amtech (NASDAQ:ASYS)
Focusing on the silicon carbide and power semiconductor sectors, Amtech Systems (NASDAQ:ASYS) produces the machinery and related chemicals needed for manufacturing semiconductors.
Amtech reported revenues of $24.11 million, down 13% year on year. This print topped analysts’ expectations by 1.5%. Zooming out, it was a softer quarter as it recorded revenue guidance for next quarter missing analysts’ expectations and a significant miss of analysts’ EPS estimates.
The stock is down 11.2% since reporting and currently trades at $5.41.
Read our full, actionable report on Amtech here, it’s free.
Market Update
As a result of the Fed's rate hikes in 2022 and 2023, inflation has come down from frothy levels post-pandemic. The general rise in the price of goods and services is trending towards the Fed's 2% goal as of late, which is good news. The higher rates that fought inflation also didn't slow economic activity enough to catalyze a recession. So far, soft landing. This, combined with recent rate cuts (half a percent in September 2024 and a quarter percent in November 2024) have led to strong stock market performance in 2024. The icing on the cake for 2024 returns was Donald Trump's victory in the US Presidential Election in early November, sending major indices to all-time highs in the week following the election. Still, debates around the health of the economy and the impact of potential tariffs and corporate tax cuts remain. Said differently, there's still much uncertainty around 2025.
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