Jeff Jones
Analyst · Stifel
Good afternoon, and welcome to our conference call to discuss Cohu's second quarter 2022 results and third quarter 2022 outlook. I'm joined today by our President and CEO, Luis Müller. If you need a copy of our earnings release, you may access it from our website at cohu.com or by contacting Cohu Investor Relations. There's also a slide presentation in conjunction with today's call that may be accessed on Cohu's website in the Investor Relations section. Replays of this call will be available via the same page after the call concludes. Now to the Safe Harbor. During today's call, we will make forward-looking statements reflecting management's current expectations concerning Cohu's future business. These statements are based on current information that we have assessed, but which by its nature is subject to rapid and even abrupt changes. We encourage you to review the forward-looking statements section of the slide presentation and the earnings release as well as Cohu's filings with the SEC, including the most recently filed Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. Our comments speak only as of today, July 28, 2022 and Cohu assumes no obligation to update these statements for developments occurring after this call. Finally, during this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our earnings release and slide presentation for reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Luis Müller, Cohu's President and CEO. Luis?
Luis Müller: Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us. Cohu again reported outstanding results with revenue up 9.8% quarter-over-quarter to $217.2 million and non-GAAP EPS at $0.81, exceeding the midpoint of guidance. Importantly, gross margin of 46.5% continues to progress toward our three-year target financial model and benefited from growth of our semiconductor test business as well as increased in-sourcing of contactor manufacturing, now at 66% at the end of Q2. Estimated test sale utilization, unsurprisingly came down three points quarter-over-quarter to about 84%, still indicating a healthy business environment, but in line with softness in mobility and consumer end markets. Earlier in the quarter, we announced that a leading US semiconductor manufacturers selected the Diamondx platform for testing devices for Internet of Things applications. The adoption of the Diamondx by new and existing customers is strong validation of Cohu's strategy to broaden the use of our test solutions in the large mixed signal market. We have doubled the Diamondx installed base in the last three years, expanding the market use in data storage, analog, power management, display driver, automotive and RF IoT. In total, we believe there is $1.5 billion addressable market opportunity for Cohu testers. Also in the second quarter, we have ramped tester shipments in support of the recent design wins in Korea, for test and display driver ICs and in Japan for automotive power IC test. The team is hard at work to deliver additional wins over the next few quarters, mostly across automotive and industrial semiconductor customers as we continue to demonstrate the cost-effective value proposition of the air-cooled Diamondx. Now on Cohu's Interface business, we benefited from demand geared towards xEV and industrial power applications in Q2. Together with our handlers, we captured multiple system orders for a US-based customer scaling manufacturing of silicon carbide power devices. Our solution enables high current carrying capacity test and inspection of known good devices that are subsequently integrated in power modules. In the second quarter, we presented our C.razor Octosite probe card solution at TesconX and semiconductor wafer test conferences, showcasing the lower cost and higher performance value proposition of Cohu's probe card technology for millimeter wave in Pneck applications. Using similar technology, we delivered several ICON coaxial contactors last quarter for testing millimeter wave RF transceivers. These products are already in use and we plan to expand to new customers and ramp in-house manufacturing capacity in support of our strategy to grow, introduce estimated $300 million probe card addressable market. Now switching to Inspection and Metrology. We qualified the Neon platform at two new customers in Q2 and launched six new customer evaluations to conclude over the next three quarters. One consists of Neon measuring small copper pillars on a BAW filter, an application that demonstrates Cohu's vision technology accuracy. We continue to expand our capabilities, improve the vision accuracy and implement deep learning algorithms to increase vision yield for our customers. This is an exciting area that will continue to grow as 2.5 and 3D packages gain more volume across end market applications and the need for higher quality escalates. Now switching to our Software services. We broadened the penetration of our DI-Core data analytics offering to two new customers, both in automotive semiconductor markets where there is pressure to quickly ramp capacity and scale-up manufacturing. As we expand the DI-Core customer base, the value we deliver with even 1% increase in test sell uptime is becoming clear. It's not surprising that research and markets estimates the total available market for industrial analytics at $1.5 billion and expanding at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 21%. This is obviously a large industry, and our initial focus is to optimize Cohu's installed base of 23,000-plus systems. Our next milestone is to deliver incremental functionality in the second half of this year that predicts out of stratification equipment performance, contactor analytics and more. Cohu's test automation business also had a strong quarter. With three design wins at new customer operations in China, position our business for growth as China expands in automotive and industrial markets. We booked multi-unit orders for a MEMS test platform that is still in development, but gaining early traction for testing high signal-to-noise ratio sensors, essentially precision sensors. Also won a first order for testing CMOS image sensor devices used in automotive. And continue to expand our high-performance thermal systems at two leading-edge US-based customers, manufacturing graphics and data center processors. While we continue to be challenged with longer lead times for components in the regional COVID lockdowns in China, our operations team, again, did an excellent job responding and ensuring customer deliveries in the second quarter. Overall, this is an interesting environment. On the one hand, we have seen a softening in consumer and mobility demand since early this year. And on the other hand, we're extremely busy with new customer valuations that we expect to convert to wins across various product businesses over the next few quarters. In parallel, automotive and industrial markets remain robust and demand has been strong. At a macro level, it's obvious there are serious concerns about the rising interest rates and persistent inflation in the US. For the next few quarters, you wouldn't be surprising to see auto, industrial and data center remain strong, while mobility and consumer soft. Fortunately, for Cohu, the breadth of our product line and technologies enable us to address multiple market segments and capitalize on opportunities as they arise. We're not forecasting 2023 yet, but based on early customer projections and increasing wafer manufacturing capacity, we anticipate another ramp sometime near the middle of next year, driven by high-end smartphone demand continued growth of automotive ADAS and ex EV, strong industrial and data center. Regardless, we're very focused on continuing to grow the business, expanding the use of Diamondx, vision inspection systems, interface products and data analytics, such that Cohu can achieve our $1 billion revenue target model and 49% non-GAAP gross margin. At the same time, the company's structure is substantially more efficient today after consolidating the Xcerra acquisition, and we can deliver a much more resilient business model through industry cycles. Let me now turn it over to Jeff to share second quarter results and provide specifics about our third quarter guidance. Jeff?