Aehr Reports Record Revenue and Profit for Fiscal 2023 and Guides for Over 50% Increase in Revenue for Fiscal 2024 on Strength from Semiconductor Wafer Level Test and Burn-in Demand
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Aehr Reports Record Revenue and Profit for Fiscal 2023 and Guides for Over 50% Increase in Revenue for Fiscal 2024 on Strength from Semiconductor Wafer Level Test and Burn-in Demand

FREMONT, Calif., July 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR), a worldwide supplier of semiconductor test and production burn-in equipment, today announced financial results for its fiscal 2023 fourth quarter and full year ended May 31, 2023.

Fiscal Fourth Quarter Financial Results:

Fiscal Year Financial Results:

An explanation of the use of non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of Aehr’s non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the accompanying tables.

Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented:

“We are pleased to report record financial performance for both the quarter as well as the entire fiscal year ended May 31. For fiscal 2023, total revenue grew 28% to a record $65.0 million, bookings reached a record of $78.3 million, and our GAAP profit of $14.6 million and non-GAAP profit of $17.3 million were also records, growing 54% and 62% year over year, respectively. This record performance was driven by bookings and revenue shipments of our FOX wafer level test and burn-in systems and WaferPak full wafer Contactors for silicon carbide semiconductors used in electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging infrastructure, as well as silicon photonics devices used in data and telecommunications infrastructure and a new application for multichip modules using optical data interconnections.

“We saw fiscal 2023 as a breakout year for our unique and proprietary wafer level test and burn-in products. These products provide complete solutions for semiconductor manufacturers for high-volume test, burn-in, and stabilization of semiconductors such as those used in electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, photovoltaic (solar) power conversion, and data and telecommunications infrastructure. We also see on the horizon a significant new market opportunity for test and burn-in of semiconductors such as silicon photonics devices used in optical input/output (I/O) and co-packaged optics for data farms, computing, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) markets. 

“In our fiscal fourth quarter just completed, we received the first purchase order from another new silicon carbide semiconductor company for our production FOX-XP solution to be used for volume production wafer level test and burn-in of silicon carbide devices for electric vehicles, trucks, and train traction inverter modules. The train traction inverter application represents an exciting new market driver for our FOX production test solutions due to the extreme reliability and length of service requirements of this application leading to prolonged test times. This new customer, a multinational industrial conglomerate and manufacturer of semiconductors including power semiconductors, is forecasting to grow their silicon carbide business significantly to meet the market demand, which we forecast will in turn drive incremental capacity of our FOX systems as well as our proprietary WaferPak full wafer Contactors.

“With the addition of this latest customer, we have significantly expanded our customer base by adding a total of four new silicon carbide customers this year. Each of these customers is already ramping or plans to ramp our products into high-volume production using our multi wafer test and burn-in systems.

“We also have multiple potential customers inquiring about our systems with the new high voltage option introduced last year to test and burn-in gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors for power conversion applications. The gallium nitride market appears to be a potentially significant growth driver for our systems and WaferPak full wafer Contactors, particularly for automotive and photovoltaic applications where burn-in appears to be critical for meeting the initial quality and reliability needs of those markets. 

“We also see a major market opportunity with the upcoming application of silicon photonics integrated circuits for use in optical chip-to-chip communication. This is in addition to the current photonics transceiver market used in data and telecommunications. Multiple companies such as Intel, nVidia, AMD, TSMC, and Global Foundries have made announcements regarding their product roadmaps for co-packaged photonics integrated circuits with microprocessors, graphics processors, chip sets for computing as well as artificial intelligence applications. During the fiscal fourth quarter, we received our first order from a current major silicon photonics customer for a volume production FOX-XP configured to enable cost-effective production test of wafers of next-generation photonic integrated circuits, which can be used in new optical I/O or heterogeneous integrated packages. This customer is one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers and we expect to receive orders for additional production systems as they increase production of these devices.

“Another major milestone is that we have now installed both configurations of our new fully automated WaferPak Aligner at multiple customers, with the standalone Aligner already accepted and released into production just this week, and the FOX-XP with integrated Aligner expected to receive acceptance before the end of our current fiscal first quarter. Our new automated WaferPak Aligner allows hands free operation of WaferPak handling and Alignment and is available either as a standalone with movement between the Aligner and portable carts or in full integration with the FOX-XP system. As capacity and volume forecast increase, eliminating all manual interfaces for automated handling can become critical. The added automation capability of our new Aligner gives our wafer level test and burn-in offering even greater value and opens several incremental markets to Aehr, such as high-volume processors and chipsets with integrated photonics transceivers, flash and ultimately DRAM memories. This capability is also important for high volume, high mix devices requiring extremely high reliability and 100% burn-in such as automotive microcontrollers and sensors. We have received positive feedback on our new Aligner from multiple current and prospective customers across several markets and believe it will be an important addition to our product portfolio going forward.

“The market forecast for wafer level burn-in products is significant. William Blair estimates that the total available market for wafer level burn-in products for silicon carbide alone will be over $400 million by 2027. We believe Aehr has the potential to capture a significant portion of that market based on the level of silicon carbide engagements we have with customers across the globe.

“We start fiscal 2024 with an effective backlog of almost $40 million and a strong forecast from our current and prospective customers. Our engagements with numerous potential customers give us confidence in our growth expectations over the next several years, including record revenue and profit projections for this current fiscal year that ends next May, particularly as the positive momentum in demand for silicon carbide in electric vehicles continues to accelerate.”

Fiscal 2024 Financial Guidance:

For the fiscal year ending May 31, 2024, Aehr expects total revenue to be at least $100 million, representing growth of over 50% year over year, and GAAP net income of at least $28 million, representing earnings growth of greater than 90% year over year.

Management Conference Call and Webcast

Aehr Test Systems will host a conference call and webcast today at 5:00 p.m. Eastern (2:00 p.m. PT) to discuss its fiscal 2023 fourth quarter and full year operating results. To access the live call, dial +1 844-735-3765 (US and Canada) or +1 412-317-5712 (International) and ask to join the Aehr Test Systems earnings call.

In addition, a live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available over the Internet at www.aehr.com in the Investor Relations section and may also be accessed by clicking here. A replay of the conference call will also be available via telephone beginning approximately two hours after conclusion of the call and will remain available for one week. To access the call replay, dial +1 877-344-7529 (US and Canada) or +1 412-317-0088 (International) and enter replay passcode 7898611.

About Aehr Test Systems

Headquartered in Fremont, California, Aehr Test Systems is a leading provider of test solutions for testing, burning-in, and stabilizing semiconductor devices in wafer level, singulated die, and package part form, and has installed thousands of systems worldwide. Increasing quality, reliability, safety, and security needs of semiconductors used across multiple applications, including electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, solar and wind power, computing, data and telecommunications infrastructure, and solid-state memory and storage, are driving additional test requirements, incremental capacity needs, and new opportunities for Aehr Test products and solutions. Aehr has developed and introduced several innovative products including the FOX-P™ families of test and burn-in systems and FOX WaferPak™ Aligner, FOX WaferPak Contactor, FOX DiePak® Carrier and FOX DiePak Loader. The FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems are full wafer contact and singulated die/module test and burn-in systems that can test, burn-in, and stabilize a wide range of devices such as leading-edge silicon carbide-based and other power semiconductors, 2D and 3D sensors used in mobile phones, tablets, and other computing devices, memory semiconductors, processors, microcontrollers, systems-on-a-chip, and photonics and integrated optical devices. The FOX-CP system is a low-cost single-wafer compact test solution for logic, memory and photonic devices and the newest addition to the FOX-P product family. The FOX WaferPak Contactor contains a unique full wafer contactor capable of testing wafers up to 300mm that enables IC manufacturers to perform test, burn-in, and stabilization of full wafers on the FOX-P systems. The FOX DiePak Carrier allows testing, burning in, and stabilization of singulated bare die and modules up to 1024 devices in parallel per DiePak on the FOX-NP and FOX-XP systems up to nine DiePaks at a time. For more information, please visit Aehr Test Systems’ website at www.aehr.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Aehr’s future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates,” “going to,” "could," "intends," "target," "projects," "contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," “sees,” or "continue," or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern Aehr’s expectations, strategy, priorities, plans, or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, Aehr’s ability to generate bookings and revenue increases in the future; future requirements and orders of Aehr’s new and existing customers; bookings forecasted for proprietary WaferPak™ and DiePak consumables across multiple market segments; the temporary nature of customer pushouts; shipping timelines for products and follow-on capacity orders; the growth of Aehr’s systems and consumables, including as a percentage of total sales; financial guidance for fiscal 2024, including related to revenue and profitability, and expectations regarding fiscal 2024; Aehr’s ability to expand its number of customers using its FOX-P™ solutions; the ability to secure potential customer engagements; and expectations related to long-term demand for Aehr’s productions and the attractiveness of key markets. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Aehr’s recent 10-K, 10-Q and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Aehr disclaims any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release.

– Financial Tables to Follow –

 
AEHR TEST SYSTEMS AND SUBSIDIARIES
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations
(in thousands, except per share data)
(unaudited)
 
  Three Months Ended Year Ended
  May 31, Feb 28, May 31, May 31, May 31,
   2023   2023   2022   2023   2022 
           
Net sales $22,269  $17,206  $20,289  $64,961  $50,829 
Cost of sales  10,790   8,331   9,821   32,215   27,164 
Gross profit  11,479   8,875   10,468   32,746   23,665 
           
Operating expenses:          
Selling, general and administrative  3,587   3,250   2,993   12,237   10,047 
Research and development  2,253   1,832   1,655   7,134   5,818 
Total operating expenses  5,840   5,082   4,648   19,371   15,865 
           
Income from operations  5,639   3,793   5,820   13,375   7,800 
           
Interest income, net  487   374   22   1,245   13 
Gain from forgiveness of PPP loan  -   -   -   -   1,698 
Other (expense) income, net  (4)  (18)  (38)  (3)  30 
           
Income before income tax expense  6,122   4,149   5,804   14,617   9,541 
           
Income tax expense  (11)  (17)  (10)  (60)  (91)
           
Net income $6,111  $4,132  $5,794  $14,557  $9,450 
           
Earnings per share          
Basic $0.21  $0.15  $0.21  $0.52  $0.36 
Diluted $0.21  $0.14  $0.20  $0.50  $0.34 
           
Shares used in per share calculations:          
Basic  28,425   27,893   27,003   27,785   26,014 
Diluted  29,572   29,373   28,568   29,215   27,774 


AEHR TEST SYSTEMS AND SUBSIDIARIES
Reconciliation of GAAP and Non-GAAP Results
(in thousands, except per share data)
(unaudited)
           
  Three Months Ended Year Ended
  May 31, Feb 28, May 31, May 31, May 31,
   2023   2023   2022   2023   2022 
           
           
GAAP net income $6,111  $4,132  $5,794  $14,557  $9,450 
Stock-based compensation expense  654   592   737   2,749   2,923 
Gain from forgiveness of PPP loan  -   -   -   -   (1,698)
Non-GAAP net income $6,765  $4,724  $6,531  $17,306  $10,675 
           
GAAP earnings per diluted share $0.21  $0.14  $0.20  $0.50  $0.34 
Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share $0.23  $0.16  $0.23  $0.59  $0.38 
Shares used in GAAP diluted shares calculation  29,572   29,373   28,568   29,215   27,774 
Shares used in non-GAAP diluted shares calculation  29,572   29,373   28,568   29,215   27,774 
  
           
Non-GAAP net income is a non-GAAP measure and should not be considered a replacement for GAAP results. Non-GAAP net income is a financial measure the Company uses to evaluate the underlying results and operating performance of the business. The limitation of this measure is that it excludes items that impact the Company's current period net income. This limitation is best addressed by using this measure in combination with net income (the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure). These measures are not in accordance with GAAP and may differ from non-GAAP methods of accounting and reporting used by other companies.

We believe these measures enhance investors’ ability to review the company’s business from the same perspective as the Company’s management and facilitate comparisons of this period’s results with prior periods.


AEHR TEST SYSTEMS AND SUBSIDIARIES
Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
(in thousands, except per share data)
(unaudited)
       
  May 31, February 28, May 31,
   2023   2023   2022 
ASSETS      
       
Current assets:      
Cash and cash equivalents $30,054  $17,188  $31,484 
Short-term investments  17,853   25,577   - 
Trade and other accounts receivable, net  16,594   11,389   12,859 
Inventories  23,908   21,619   15,051 
Prepaid expenses and other  621   808   613 
Total current assets  89,030   76,581   60,007 
       
Property and equipment, net  2,759   1,281   1,203 
Operating lease right-of-use assets  6,123   6,293   917 
Other assets  231   241   201 
Total assets $98,143  $84,396  $62,328 
       
LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY        
       
Current liabilities:      
Accounts payable $9,206  $4,988  $4,195 
Accrued expenses  4,143   3,489   3,610 
Operating lease liabilities, short-term  137   68   794 
Customer deposits and deferred revenue, short-term  2,822   843   2,415 
Total current liabilities  16,308   9,388   11,014 
       
Operating lease liabilities, long-term  6,163   6,324   212 
Deferred revenue, long-term  31   8   69 
Other liabilities  41   42   44 
Total liabilities  22,543   15,762   11,339 
       
Total shareholders' equity  75,600   68,634   50,989 
       
Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $98,143  $84,396  $62,328 


Contacts:

Aehr Test Systems
Chris Siu
Chief Financial Officer
Email Contact

MKR Investor Relations Inc.
Todd Kehrli or Jim Byers
Analyst/Investor Contact
(323) 468-2300
Email Contact

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