2Q 2007 earnings will be released on Thursday, January 4 AH. There is one day less to trade before earnings because the markets will be closed on Tuesday in memory of President Ford.
AEHR (semi test equipment sector) could be a big winner in 2007 and beyond because of its innovetive technology, great product acceptance, superb management and a strong balance sheet. The stock is down primarily because of a questionable downgrade back in September, 2006 and tax-selling season. The decline has been very gradual and on low volume.
The downgrade was highly criticized at the time it was issued (the day before the company's last quarterly report 1Q 2007 was issued). The sell target was $5 and that's where we are now.
Ironically, when the company reported, it surprised the street with very good results and strong guidance. At that time AEHR was trading close to $8.
In late September 2006 AEHR posted net income of $557,000, or 7 cents a share for 1Q 2007, compared with a loss of $244,000, or 3 cents a share, a year ago. Sales totaled $7.1 million, up 54% from a year ago. Excluding stock-compensation expense of $163,000, the company earned $717,000, or 9 cents a share.
Gary Larson, AEHR's vice president and chief financial officer, said in a statement "During the second quarter of fiscal 2007, we expect net sales and net income to be relatively similar to those of the first quarter of fiscal 2007,".....
As a reference, in 2Q 2006 AEHR reported $5.8M in revenues and $166K net income or 2c/share. Therefore, the comparables would greatly favor 2007's over 2006 results Q/Q. For the first six months, AEHR would be about 40% higher than the comparable 2006 and net income of about 14c/share vs a loss of 2c/share.
If AEHR gets even close to its guidance it should beat the year-ago quarter handily. And with only 2M shares on the float, AEHR could literally explode to the $8+ trading range.
Some brokerage houses are not allowing the purchase of AEHR shares for a few days to prevent manipulation since the float is so small. You have to call your broker and he/she will buy the stock for your at internet prices.
There has been some heavy institutional buying in the last three months while the pps declined accurred. Looks like the laready small float is getting smaller:
since the pps started declining in September. That means that the already small float is getting even smaller.
Headquartered in Fremont, California, Aehr Test Systems is a leading worldwide provider of systems for burning-in and testing DRAM and logic integrated circuits and has an installed base of more than 2,500 systems worldwide. Aehr Test has developed and introduced several innovative products, including the FOX(TM), MTX and MAX systems, and the DiePak® carrier.