By Ben Glickman
Coherent, the optical materials and semiconductor company based in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, experienced a surge in its stock price after reporting positive signs of improving demand and exceeding Wall Street’s estimates for the fiscal second quarter results.
Stock Performance
The company’s stock rose by 7.2% to $53 in after-hours trading, following a 0.6% increase at Monday’s close. Over the past three months, shares of Coherent have witnessed a remarkable 51% increase.
Fiscal Second Quarter Results
For the fiscal second quarter, Coherent reported a loss of $27 million, or 38 cents per share. This improved from the previous year’s loss of $45.1 million, or 58 cents per share. Analysts had expected a loss of 62 cents per share, according to FactSet.
Excluding certain one-time items, Coherent achieved a profit of 36 cents per share, surpassing both the analysts’ forecast of 26 cents and the company’s own guidance.
Although revenue dropped over 17% to $1.13 billion, it exceeded the analysts’ forecast of $1.12 billion.
Positive Demand Trends
Despite the macroeconomic uncertainty affecting growth, Coherent observed signs of improving demand trends during the quarter. The company highlighted the strong order performance of its artificial intelligence and machine learning-related Datacom transceivers, which marked a third-straight quarter of growth.