Kulicke & Soffa Industries (NASDAQ: KLIC) earned an endorsement from Needham after reporting quarterly results that beat the firm’s expectations on several fronts. Needham raised its price target on the semiconductor equipment maker to $70.00 from $64.00 and kept a Buy rating following the company’s latest operating report.
The company reported revenue of $199.6 million, which reached the high end of its guided range. Non-GAAP gross margins came in stronger than anticipated, exceeding the high-end of guidance by 160 basis points. Needham highlighted notable strength within the General Semiconductor and Ball Bonder product groups.
Forward guidance from Kulicke & Soffa was particularly encouraging. Management is guiding the coming quarter to revenue of $230 million, a sequential increase of 15 percent. Needham attributed that expected rise to continued demand in both the General Semiconductor and Memory segments.
Looking beyond the next quarter, company management projected that the second half of fiscal year 2024 should outperform the first half by a range of 15 to 20 percent. In its modeling, Needham forecasted a meaningful ramp in longer-term revenue, projecting fiscal year 2026 revenue to climb 41 percent year-over-year. The firm said that constructive commentary on utilization rates from Kulicke & Soffa strengthened its view of an operational recovery.
Needham’s revised $70 price objective is derived from a 22 times multiple applied to its updated calendar year 2027 earnings per share estimate. The calendar 2027 EPS forecast was increased by 10 percent, a change Needham said was driven by improved gross margin expectations communicated by the company.
In additional reported results, Kulicke & Soffa’s first quarter of 2026 non-GAAP earnings per share were $0.44, materially above the $0.33 consensus projection. Revenue for the quarter was $199.63 million, beating the forecast of $190.03 million. Those beats translate to a 33.33 percent outperformance on EPS and a 5.05 percent revenue upside relative to expectations, as reported. The company’s ability to exceed expectations in the quarter was noted as reinforcing investor optimism.
At the time of the report, no analyst firms had released follow-up upgrades or downgrades in response to the results. That absence of immediate analyst action leaves the market to digest the data and the implications of the company’s guidance and Needham’s updated forecasting.
Overall, Needham’s actions reflect a reassessment of Kulicke & Soffa’s margin trajectory and utilization improvements, with the firm translating those operational cues into higher EPS estimates and a higher valuation multiple. Management’s forward-looking commentary and the company’s quarter-to-quarter revenue and margin delivery were central to Needham’s decision to boost its target and maintain a constructive rating.