ACM Research - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Executive Summary

• Q1 2025 delivered solid growth and profitability: revenue $172.35M (+13.2% y/y) with GAAP gross margin 47.9% (non-GAAP 48.2%) and GAAP diluted EPS $0.30 (non-GAAP $0.46). Management maintained FY25 revenue guidance of $850–$950M.
• Results beat S&P Global consensus: revenue $172.35M vs $165.33M* and non-GAAP EPS $0.46 vs $0.35*; GAAP diluted EPS was $0.30 (non-GAAP better reflects core operations). Gross margin stayed above the long-term model despite mix headwinds, but down y/y.
• Strategic milestones underpin the narrative: high‑temperature SPM tool qualified at a leading China logic customer; U.S. customer acceptance for a backside/bevel etch tool; continued progress in plating, furnace, Track and PECVD; Oregon facility investment to support global customers.
• Shipments were $157M (down y/y on tough compare/pull-ins from Q4’24), with management flagging a return to y/y shipment growth in Q2’25—an important near-term stock narrative catalyst alongside maintained FY guide and China share gains.

Estimates marked with * are from S&P Global.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Technology wins and product momentum: “Qualification of our high‑temperature SPM tool by a leading logic customer in China” and U.S. acceptance of a backend bevel etch tool; ACM also won the 2025 3D InCites award for its Ultra ECP ap‑p panel plating tool, highlighting leadership in both front-end and advanced packaging.
• Revenue growth and profitability: Revenue +13.2% y/y to $172.3M; GAAP operating income $25.8M (15.0% margin); non‑GAAP operating income $35.6M (20.7% margin), with non‑GAAP EPS $0.46.
• Gross margin resilience: GAAP GM 47.9% (non‑GAAP 48.2%), above the long‑term model (42–48%) even amid mix/currency variability.

What Went Wrong

• Gross margin and non‑GAAP operating leverage down y/y: GAAP GM fell 410 bps y/y (52.0% → 47.9%); non‑GAAP operating margin decreased to 20.7% from 26.2% on higher opex to support growth and R&D.
• Shipments declined vs. tough compare: $157M vs $245M in Q1’24 due partly to Q4’24 pull-ins; however, mgmt expects y/y shipment growth to resume in Q2’25.
• Regional concentration persists: Mainland China comprised ~$169.1M of $172.3M in revenue (98%), underscoring continued geographic concentration risk despite ongoing global expansion efforts.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the ACM Research First Quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, we are recording today's call. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Now, I will turn the call over to Mr. Steven Pelayo, Managing Director of the Blue Shirt Group. Steven, please go ahead.

Steven Pelayo (Managing Director)

Good day, everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss First Quarter 2025 results, which we released before the U.S. market opened today. The release is available on our website as well as from Newswire Services. There's also a supplemental slide deck posted to the Investor section of our website that we will reference during our prepared remarks. On the call with me today are CEO David Wang, our CFO Mark McKechnie, and Lisa Fang, our CFO of our operating subsidiary ACM Shanghai. Before we continue, please turn to slide two. Let me remind you that remarks made during this call may include predictions, estimates, or other information that might be considered forward-looking. These forward-looking statements represent ACM's current judgment for the future. However, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.

Those risks are described under risk factors and elsewhere in ACM's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Please do not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect ACM's opinions only as of the date of this call. ACM is not obliged to update you on any revisions to these forward-looking statements. Certain of the financial results that we provide on this call will be on a non-GAAP basis, which excludes stock-based compensation and an unrealized gain and loss on short-term investments. For our GAAP results and reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP amounts, you should refer to our earnings release, which is posted on the IR section of our website, and to slide 13. Also, unless otherwise noted, the following figures refer to the first quarter of 2025, and comparisons are with the first quarter of 2024.

I will now turn the call over to David Wang. David?

David Wang (CEO)

Thanks, Steven. Hello, everyone, and welcome to ACM Research First Quarter earnings conference call. We've just completed another important quarter, not only in terms of performance but also in how we are advancing our position in this global semiconductor industry. Before I reveal the results, I would like to highlight a few recent developments and reflect the momentum we're building and the direction we're heading. We were pleased to see ACM Research recently appeared on the list of the top 20 global semiconductor equipment companies for 2024, as published by a leading third-party market research firm. That recognition reflects the steady progress we have made over the year and the growing impact of our innovative products. In China, we estimate our market share in both wafer cleaning and plating reached more than 25%, which translates to more than 9% global for each product category.

Let's speak to the trust we have earned from leading customers and also strengths our product portfolio. Our panel-level packaging tool received the 3D InCites Technology Enablement Award. As a reminder, panel-level packaging is a next-generation solution for high-performance AI chip packaging. This award is yet another great validation of ACM's commitment to delivering innovative and enabling technology to our customers. At the same time, we're all aware that the global trade environment is shifting. With new tariffs and evolving policies, we're operating in a more complex and less predictable environment. In this new period, we think the strategy we set forth many years ago, develop world-class tools, establish R&D and production in key countries where major semiconductor customers are located, and the focus sales effort on the global market becomes even more important for our future success. ACM is a U.S. company with deep operational strength in Asia.

We're in a unique position. We have built a successful business in Asia by delivering world-class tools. As a multi-product company, we're expanding our tool offering to better support our customers in Asia. We're now taking important steps to expand our business into the global market. In the U.S., we're investing in an Oregon facility, starting with a Class 100 cleanroom for wafer demo and R&D activities. We're laying the groundwork for initial production capacity in our Oregon facility. We currently believe this is the best way to reduce tariff uncertainty for the U.S. customer, and it is also good business to establish production close to a customer. We believe that ACM's position as the only U.S. company with a full top-to-bottom cleaning product line, combined with technology lab and the commitment to production in Oregon, puts us in a good position to take on the global market.

Now, on to our business results. Please turn to slide three. For the first quarter of 2025, we delivered a revenue of $172 million, up 13% over a year. Shipment was $157 million, down 36%. We know that shipment in Q1 of 2024 was especially strong due to customer demand. This was a tough comparison. We anticipate a return to year-over-year shipment growth in the second quarter. Gross margin was 48.2%, exceeding our target range of 42%-48%. We ended the quarter with a net cash of $271 million, up from $259 million at the year-end 2024. Now, I will provide details on product. Please turn to slide four. Revenue from single wafer cleaning, Tahoe, and semicritical cleaning tools grew 18% and represented 75% of the total revenue.

Growth was led by strong demand for our SAS and TEBO platform, as well as continued momentum for the Ultra CB backside cleaning tool. In Q1, we qualified our high-temperature SPM tool with a leading large customer in China and achieved customer acceptance for our back-end Bevel Edge tool from a U.S. customer. Looking ahead in cleaning, we expect to see a strong product cycle across high-temperature SPM, Tahoe, and other cleaning segments. We believe our top-to-bottom cleaning portfolio puts us in a strong position to continue gaining share both in China and expanding to the global market. Revenue from ECP, furnace, and other technology grew 7% and represented 16% of total revenue. We saw strong momentum in ECP tools for advanced packaging, and we are excited about their initial response to our new Ultra ECP APP tool.

As mentioned before, ACM Ultra ECP APP panel-level plating tool received the 2025 3D Insight Technology Enablement Award in the United States. We believe ACM is the first and only supplier to offer rotating hodrizontal plating approach for the panel-level packaging. The industry is now aggressively migrating from wafer-level packaging to panel-level packaging as one of the leading solutions for the next generation of AI chips. The reason is simple. You get a better utilization with a square panel versus a circular wafer. As a result, we're now experiencing a lot of interest from several major players in the industry. This product highlights ACM's technology leadership in both front-end processing and advanced packaging applications. We believe this will allow us to play a key role as global industry demands innovations to support even evolving semiconductor requirements for AI. Our furnace product continues to gain traction.

Our view is that the market is increasingly demanding high-temperature annealing solutions, particularly for power semiconductor IGBT devices. Our Ultra FN vertical furnace tool is a proprietary core-based design that reaches temperatures of up to 1,250 degrees Celsius without distorting the wafer surface. We believe no other supplier currently achieves this temperature level in a vertical platform, and this is yet another good example of ACM's technology leadership. We expect a revenue contribution from our furnace product line, including LPCVD, oxidation, and ARD, to accelerate meaningfully in 2025, expanding from a relatively small base in 2024. Revenue from advanced packaging, which excludes ECP but includes service and spare, was down 10.5% and representing 9% of revenue. We're making good progress with the new track and PCVD platforms. Both of these products come with ACM's innovative and differentiated platform design that allows for process flexibility and high throughput.

We had a solid list of ongoing demonstrations and evaluations for both track and PCVD. For track, we plan to deliver our 300 WPH Inline KRF beta tool in mid-2025. For our new platform, track and PCVD, we expect some initial revenue contribution in 2025, with more in 2026 and beyond. To wrap up the product, we have been on a strong growth path for the past five years with new products, including Tahoe SPM and furnace in 2025, followed by our panel-level packaging tools, track and PCVD in 2026 and beyond. We remain committed to a high-growth model for the next five years. As a reminder, our $3 billion long-term revenue target anticipates $1.5 billion from China and $1.5 billion from the global market. Next, let me provide an update on our production facility. First is Lingang. Please turn to slide eight.

Our state-of-the-art Lingang production and R&D center is nearly completed. The site, including two production buildings, is the first now in production and the second available for future expansion. Each of the two production buildings can support up to $1.5 billion of the annual production capacity. Combined, we believe we can eventually support $3 billion of the production at Lingang. Next, our Oregon facility. Please turn to slide eight. As I mentioned before, we are investing in our U.S. footprint. Our Oregon facility is 40,000 sq ft. We are building out a demo lab and a cleanroom and plan to add initial manufacturing to support our global customers. Now, I will provide an outlook for the full year 2025. Please turn to slide eight. Slide 10. We are maintaining our 2025 revenue outlook in a range of $850 million-$950 million.

This implies 15% year-over-year growth at the middle point. In closing, our focus remains on delivering differentiated, enabling technology that solves our global customers' most critical process challenges. Now, let me turn the call over to the CFO, Mark, who will review details of our first quarter results. Mark, please.

Mark McKechnie (CFO)

Thank you, David. And good day, everyone. Please turn to slide 11. Unless I note otherwise, I will refer to non-GAAP financial measures, which exclude stock-based compensation, unrealized gain/loss on short-term investments. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to comparable GAAP measures is included in our earnings release. Also, unless otherwise noted, the following figures refer to the first quarter of 2025 and comparisons are with the first quarter of 2024. I will now provide financial highlights. Revenue was $172.3 million up 13.2%.

Total shipments were $157 million versus $245 million in Q1 of 2024 and $264 million in Q4 of 2024. David noted shipments in the first quarter of 2024 were especially strong during customer demands, so this was a tough year-on-year compare. We also had some pull-ins in the fourth quarter of last year, making for a tough quarter-on-quarter compare. For reference, combined total shipments for the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 still increased by 8.9% versus the prior year periods. We do anticipate a return to year-over-year shipment growth in the second quarter. Gross margin was 48.2% versus 52.5%. This exceeded our long-term business model target range of 42%-48%. We do expect gross margin to vary from period to period due to a variety of factors, including sales volume, product mix, and currency impacts. Operating expenses were $47.5 million up 18.4%.

For 2025, we plan for R&D in the 13%-14% of revenue range, sales and marketing in the 7% range, and G&A in the 5%-6% range. Operating income was $35.6 million, down 10.6%. Operating margin was 20.7% versus 26.2%. Income tax expense was $2.2 million versus $4.4 million. For 2025, we expect our effective tax rate in the 10%-15% range. Net income attributable to ACM Research was $31.3 million versus $34.6 million. Net income per diluted share was $0.46 versus $0.52. Our non-GAAP net income excluded $9.8 million in stock-based compensation expense for the first quarter. I'll now review selected balance sheet and cash flow items. Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and time deposits were $498.4 million at the end of the first quarter versus $441.9 million at the end of last year.

Net cash, which excludes short-term and long-term debt, was $271 million, up from $259 million at the year-end 2024. Total inventory was $609.6 million versus $598.0 million at year-end 2024. This included raw materials and work in process of $310.8 million, finished goods inventory of $298.8 million. Finished goods inventory primarily consists of first tools under evaluation at our customer sites, along with finished goods located at ACM's facilities. Cash flow from operations was a positive $5.3 million versus a negative $9 million in the year-ago quarter. Capital expenditures were $17.1 million versus $26.1 million in the year-ago quarter. For the full year 2025, we expect to spend about $70 million in capital expenditures. That concludes our prepared remarks. Let's open the call for any questions that you may have. Operator, please go ahead.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question-and-answer session.

To ask a question, you need to press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question is from Charles Shi with Needham & Company. Your line is now open.

Charles Shi (Senior Analyst)

Good evening. Maybe good morning, Mark, David. My first question, I do want to ask you guys about shipment figures. We understand, yeah, this is a very lumpy metric. You can't really look at it on a quarter-to-quarter basis. I think one quarter ago, management said for the full-year shipment, you're expecting shipment growth over last year's level.

Given the pulling effect from March into December last year, I found that it's probably pretty a high bar for you to get the full-year shipment growth, meaning you probably need to ship, roughly speaking, $270 million per quarter for the next three quarters. I did hear in the prepared remarks, management is committed to Q2 shipment year-on-year growth. Any thoughts on the full-year shipment, especially compared with last year's shipment? Thank you.

David Wang (CEO)

Sure. Thanks, Charles. Actually, the last year's shipment is really, I mean, extremely high, right? We're increased compared to 2023, we're increased more than 60%. That high number, that put a pressure this year. Anyway, I answer your question directly. We're still expecting this year's shipment will over the last year's shipment. Probably we're not as high as last year, right? That's the answer to your question.

Mark McKechnie (CFO)

Charles, let me clarify that. Yeah, shipments we expect to grow in 2025, but the growth rate of shipments, we're not necessarily saying that the growth rate of shipments will be higher than the growth rate of revenue for this year.

Charles Shi (Senior Analyst)

Got it. Got it. Got it. Okay. That's helpful, Color. Higher in shipment dollars compared with last year in terms of a growth percentage. Feels like you are saying it's lower than last year, probably lower than this year's revenue growth, but still positive direction.

Steven Pelayo (Managing Director)

That's right. Still growth. Yeah, still growth. Thank you. Thank you.

Charles Shi (Senior Analyst)

Maybe a question on the tariffs. I know you probably do not have a lot of content imports from the U.S., but since China does put pretty high tariffs on the U.S. imports, wonder if there's any impact on the profitability-wise or anything that could cause some issues for you guys going forward.

David Wang (CEO)

Okay. You mean for ACM, right? That is your point? Or for our customers?

Charles Shi (Senior Analyst)

ACM Shanghai, yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes.

David Wang (CEO)

Okay. Again, since this whatever is a tariff for plus also parts, right, in our tool. Now we are located third parties or, I mean, either a third country, right, also including some made-in-China parts. I think this import from U.S. parts or tariffs to China, I mean, does not impact us. Instead, we are going to spend more of a, I call it, buy more of a part locally and also buy third-party countries' product, right? I think the impact for us is pretty minimized. Maybe your customer, right? That is a different question.

Charles Shi (Senior Analyst)

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Maybe the last question I have in terms of 2026, I know it is way too early for you guys to really talk about '26.

Any initial thoughts there in terms of your growth, in terms of the overall market growth, and any color would be helpful. Thank you.

David Wang (CEO)

At this point, I know it's early, but that's our job. We want to push you to give us a little bit more.

Charles Shi (Senior Analyst)

Sure. Sure.

David Wang (CEO)

Actually, as we stay there, maybe a couple of quarters again before, is China growth of the WFE market in the last five years pretty good, right? We think of 2025 getting into the plateau, right, this kind of plateau stage. Yeah. I mean, this moment is too early to say 2026. Even some people say this year down maybe 20% or 10%, right? However, we're looking at our revenue, our customer talking to us, they're continuing expanding.

Our revenue look at, I mean, our shipment look at all their PO, we are filled Q2, Q3, and still something we need to fill Q4. Also to see some shipment coming into Q1 of next year. Our growth strategy is even say China market is a flattened or is a plateau. We'll still continue gaining market share because of cleaning, copper plating, and also new product like furnaces. I just mentioned we have this ultra-high temperature needle plastic come out. A lot of potential ITPT application in China, they demand high-temperature needle furnaces, right? 1,250 degrees Celsius. It's really champing, I call it, temperature we can do also without the distorting of the surface structure. That can be the continued innovation product driving our growth.

Further, I want to say our panel product we mentioned today is another bigger, I call it, growing for international market. Also we see some domestic market too. Plus, we have further other furnaces in the development. There are PCVD and the track, especially track. We gather probably middle of this year for shipping our beta tool, KRF line, 300 WPH, right, to the Walmart customer. I want to say our continued momentum to have a PCVD and track and further join our revenue stream. We are still very high confidence. We are still growing in this market in our market share in China. We still have a high confidence as we execute our business strategy, qualify our new product. I am still looking at next five-year high growth.

Charles Shi (Senior Analyst)

Thanks, David.

Maybe can I squeeze in one more since you mentioned about a good number of tractions on the new products?

David Wang (CEO)

Yeah, please, Charles. Charles, yeah. So at Semicom, China, there has been a lot more product announcements from your peers in China. It appears to me the domestic Chinese semiconductor companies look like they're coming after each other's market. There's a kind of heightened domestic competition there. We definitely are hearing rumors that there seems to be a likely consolidation for the Chinese semi-equipment sector coming up. I wonder if you have any thoughts there and where does ACM Shanghai stand in terms of domestic competition and potential consolidation with your peers.

Charles Shi (Senior Analyst)

Thank you. Okay.

David Wang (CEO)

Let's talk about competition first, right? I think ACM today, we got a full product, right? Cleaning tool and top to bottom.

Basically, we can supply almost 90-95% process application. Those for the memory or for the logic. We have a very strong position in cleaning, right? Plus, same thing, copper plating. We cover almost all the copper plating product, right? Dimethylene and TSV, advanced packaging, this I call it III-V compound semiconductor, and also panel-level packaging. We have a very strong position for those portions. More important, I want to say that is ACM has real innovation technology, right? The local Chinese customer, they really demand the advanced technology product. They're not only, you say, by pricing. Okay. In other sense, we're not too much worried about the local peer competing the price with us. As I said again, right, this is a real technology game or technology winning game, not only by pricing.

We feel our innovation product, our IP protection, can avoid anybody copying our tool in China. That is really our strong position because our tool never copies anybody's tool. If we start copying anybody else, then they can copy us, right? We have nothing to say. Actually, in the last 20 years, we are really innovation and IP protection. We have very strong confidence. No peer in China can copy our tool. We have very strong footprint or technology. That is our strong. The next thing, you talk about consolidation, yeah, I think it is going to happen, right? This market happened in the U.S., in Japan, and probably in Europe. As the industry moves forward, a lot of small companies probably have to be merged with the big guy. I mean, we see that happen, and we love to see that happen.

ACM was still very strong in the market. At this moment, I said, we have a lot of organic growth with our new product. We can innovate the product we're doing ourselves. Probably we're not trying to combine or merge other companies' growth business. At this moment, most important, we're focused on our own technology development, our portfolio. There's a lot of revenue for us to gain a market share. That's maybe our position. Hey, Mark, anything you want to add on that?

Mark McKechnie (CFO)

Yeah. No, I think, Charles, you brought up a good point, and it's something that we consider a lot. When you think about consolidation, big picture, we have pretty aggressive revenue targets, obviously. We talked about a billion and a half in China. That's assuming very low market share for some of our newer platforms.

If you kind of step back and think about, okay, there will be some consolidation. Say China is a $30 billion-$40 billion WFE. The top 10 players are going to be $3 billion-$4 billion apiece. We feel pretty confident we can grow to those levels organically, I think, is the point that David and the team are really focused on doing. We do not disagree. We are seeing some of the additional entrants and folks going after kind of trying to get in there with a couple of products. We have a big services team, great footprint across all of our customer base. At the end of the day, we have really strong IP that we think is important to continue to drive our business in China, and then it is going to help open the doors globally.

Charles Shi (Senior Analyst)

Yeah. Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate the answers.

David Wang (CEO)

Yep. Thanks, Charles.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you need to press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Our next question comes from Kieran Haldane with Surge Equity Research. Your line is now open.

Hello.

Hello, Kieran.

David Wang (CEO)

We cannot hear your voice. Did you email your speaker?

Operator (participant)

All right. Thank you. Seeing no more questions in the queue at this time, I will turn the call back to David Wang for closing remarks.

David Wang (CEO)

Thank you. Thank you, operator, and thank you all that are participating to today's call and for your support. Before we close, Steven is going to mention our upcoming investor relation events. Steve, please.

Steven Pelayo (Managing Director)

Thanks, David. Before we conclude, I just want to give everyone a quick reminder on our upcoming investor conferences.

On June 25th, we will present at the 15th Annual Roth London Conference at the Four Seasons Park Lane, London. Attendance at the conference is by invitation only. For interested investors, please contact your respective sales representative to register and schedule one-on-one meetings with the management team. This concludes the call, and you may now disconnect. Take care.