COHR

Investors might want to bet on Coherent (COHR), as earnings estimates for this company have been showing solid improvement lately. The stock has already gained solid short-term price momentum, and this trend might continue with its still improving earnings outlook. The rising trend in estimate revisions, which is a result of growing analyst optimism on the earnings prospects of this Laser and optics manufacturer, should get reflected in its stock price. After all, empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements. Our stock rating tool -- the Zacks Rank -- has this insight at its core. The five-grade Zacks Rank system, which ranges from a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive externally-audited track record of outperformance, with Zacks #1 Ranked stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 2008. For Coherent, strong agreement among the covering analysts in revising earnings estimates upward has resulted in meaningful improvement in consensus estimates for the next quarter and full year. The chart below shows the evolution of forward 12-month Zacks Consensus EPS estimate: The company is expected to earn $1.96 per share for the current quarter, which represents a year-over-year change of +69.0%. Over the last 30 days, seven estimates have moved higher for Coherent compared to no negative revisions. As a result, the Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased 9.88%. For the full year, the company is expected to earn $9.38 per share, representing a year-over-year change of +67.2%. The revisions trend for the current year also appears quite promising for Coherent, with 10 estimates moving higher over the past month compared to no negative revisions. The consensus estimate has also received a boost over this time frame, increasing 13.08%. The promising estimate revisions have helped Coherent earn a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The Zacks Rank is a tried-and-tested rating tool that helps investors effectively harness the power of earnings estimate revisions and make the right investment decision.You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Our research shows that stocks with Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and 2 (Buy) significantly outperform the S&P 500. Investors have been betting on Coherent because of its solid estimate revisions, as evident from the stock's 18.4% gain over the past four weeks. As its earnings growth prospects might push the stock higher, you may consider adding it to your portfolio right away. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Coherent Corp. (COHR) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

On August 12, 2026, Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) beat fourth-quarter earnings estimates and forecast first-quarter revenue and profit above expectations. Yet, its shares slipped 4% in extended trading. Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE), a rival optical component maker, reported its results a day earlier, on August 11, 2026, with revenue guidance that CEO Michael Hurlston said would hit the company's long-term target model a full quarter ahead of schedule. Why This Matters Both companies make the optical components that move data inside AI data centers, and both are seeing real demand from the same hyperscaler buildout. That raises the real question: if the demand story is this strong for both, why did the market reward one stock and sell the other? The Bull and Bear Case: Coherent Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR)'s data center and communications segment, its largest, generated $1.62 billion in revenue, up from $1.02 billion a year earlier. Overall quarterly revenue of $2.05 billion beat the $1.99 billion analysts expected. CEO Jim Anderson said the company enters fiscal 2027 "with exceptional customer demand, expanding production capacity." Coherent forecasts first-quarter revenue of $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion, above the $2.14 billion analysts modeled. Nvidia itself invested $2 billion in Coherent in March 2026 to support research, manufacturing, and operations. However, revenue in Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR)'s industrial business segment fell 16% during the quarter. The company reported sharply lower full-year operating cash flow. Shares had already climbed nearly 93% for the year heading into the report, leaving little room for anything short of a clean beat, and the stock fell anyway despite one. The Bull and Bear Case: Lumentum Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE)'s press release said the company's trajectory "continues to accelerate as AI demand drives" its first-quarter revenue guidance midpoint to $1.25 billion, reaching its target model a quarter ahead of schedule. Non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter came in at $326.3 million, or $3.23 per diluted share, up sharply from $63.3 million a year earlier, and the company guided first-quarter non-GAAP earnings per share of $4.05 to $4.35. Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE) reported a GAAP net loss of $7.2 billion for the quarter, driven almost entirely by a one-time $7.8 billion non-cash loss tied to converting some of its convertible notes into equity, a reminder that the company's balance sheet still carries complexity investors need to look past to see the underlying business. Insider Monkey's Hedge Fund Data Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) was held by 114 hedge funds as of Q1 2026, up from 109. Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE) was held by 123 hedge funds, up from 97. Conclusion Coherent and Lumentum are both genuinely benefiting from the same AI optics boom, but Coherent's post-earnings drop shows how little room for error even a strong quarter leaves once a stock has already run this far. While we acknowledge the potential of COHR as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR) vs. BigBear.ai Holdings, Inc. (BBAI): Palantir's "Otherworldly" Quarter Sends Shares Soaring 30% and ASML Holding N.V. (ASML) vs. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSM): A Key Supplier Says it Can Keep Up With the AI Boom. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET Senior Vice President of Investor Relations - Paul Jonas Silverstein Chief Executive Officer - James Robert Anderson Chief Financial Officer - Sherri R. Luther Operator: Greetings, and welcome to the Coherent Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 26 Earnings Call. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Paul Jonas Silverstein, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations for Coherent. Please go ahead. Paul Jonas Silverstein: Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. With me today are Jim Anderson, Coherent's CEO and Sherri R. Luther, Coherent's CFO. During today's call, we will provide a financial and business review of the fourth quarter of fiscal 26, and the business outlook for the first quarter of fiscal 27. Our earnings press release can be found in the Investor Relations section of our company website at coherent.com. I would like to remind everyone that during our conference call, you may make projections or other forward looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the company. These are subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties and our actual results may differ materially. For a discussion of factors that could affect our future financial results and business, please refer to the disclosure in today's earnings release. Our most recent Forms 10 ks and 10 Q and the reports that we may file on Form 8 ks with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All our statements are made as of today, August 12, 2026, based on information currently available to us. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update any such statements. During this call, we will discuss non GAAP financial measures. You can find a reconciliation of these non GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures in our earnings release and investor presentation that can be found on the Investor Relations section of our website at coherent.com. Let me now turn the call over to our CEO, Jim Anderson. James Robert Anderson: Thank you, Paul, and thank you everyone for joining today's call. Fiscal 26 was an outstanding year for Coherent. On a pro forma basis, revenue increased 28% to a record $7 billion Our revenue growth combined with gross margin expansion and continued operating leverage drove non GAAP EPS growth of approximately 59% more than twice the rate of revenue growth. We also finished the year with significant momentum. In Q4, our pro forma revenue growth rate accelerated significantly with revenue increasing 14% sequentially, and 42% year over year, while non GAAP EPS increased 74% year over year. Our accelerated growth rate reflects the exceptional demand environment and our continued rapid expansion of production capacity. While we are very pleased with our fiscal 26 performance, we are even more excited about the year ahead. We expect our growth to accelerate significantly in fiscal 2027. Having achieved our first $2 billion revenue quarter, we now expect to achieve our first quarter with over $3 billion of revenue by the end of fiscal 27. Coherent is a global leader in photonic technology. Our broad photonic technology platform is foundational to the performance and scalability of AI data centers. AI runs on compute, but it scales on optical connectivity. Coherent is at the center of an extraordinary expansion in optical networking infrastructure, driven by the rapid growth of AI, the transition from copper to optical connectivity, and the increasing need for bandwidth and energy efficiency across increasingly large and complex data center architectures. Our competence in fiscal 27 is based on 3 factors. First, customer demand continues to grow. As demonstrated by another quarter of record bookings. Second, our supply of critical components is increasing, including the planned doubling of our internal Indium Phosphide year over year by the end of the current quarter. Third, multiple new revenue streams are expected to ramp over the coming quarters. Including Optical Circuit Switching, co-packaged optics, multi-rail systems, and advanced materials for data center thermal and power management. Along with strong revenue growth, we expect continued gross margin expansion and operating leverage enabling us to grow EPS significantly faster than revenue. We expect fiscal 27 to be another outstanding year for Coherent. Our data center and communications segment continues to be the primary driver of our growth and accounted for 79% of total company revenue in Q4. Segment revenue increased 40% for full year fiscal 26. In Q4, our segment revenue growth rate accelerated significantly revenue increasing 19% sequentially and 59% year over year. Demand continues to strengthen, driving another quarter of record bookings and extending our visibility further into the future. Our order coverage through calendar 27 is exceptional. Customer orders now extend into calendar 28. Customer LTAs extend through the end of the decade. We continue to see no signs of attenuation in customer demand. Our broad photonic technology portfolio manufacturing scale, and significant US production footprint are increasingly differentiating Coherent with customers and translating into deeper longer term partnerships and revenue opportunities. In our data center business, revenue increased 41% for full year fiscal 26. In Q4, our data center revenue growth rate accelerated significantly, revenue increasing 24% sequentially and 66% year over year. This marked our third consecutive quarter of double digit sequential growth and we expect strong sequential growth again in the current quarter. Demand in our data center business remains exceptionally strong and broad based across multiple customers and product categories. Within transceivers, we expect growth to be driven by both 800G and 1.6T. We expect 800G revenue to continue growing year over year in calendar 2026, while 1.60 transceivers ramp rapidly through the balance of calendar 2026 and into calendar 2027, as adoption broadens across customers. Beyond transceivers, OCS revenue increased sequentially in Q4 we expect continued growth over the coming quarters as we expand production capacity. We also expect CPO to begin contributing to revenue growth in fiscal Q2, consistent with our planned production ramp. Our 6-inch Indium Phosphide capacity expansion is a key driver of revenue growth and margin expansion. We remain on track to double our internal Indium Phosphide output capacity year over year by the end of the current quarter, 1 quarter ahead of our original plan. This ramp contributed meaningfully to our data center revenue growth in Q4 and we expect it to remain an important growth driver in Q1. Looking further ahead, we remain on track to more than double our internal Indium Phosphide output capacity again by the end of calendar 27. We have secured the substrates and other critical inputs required to support this ramp. Given the strength of customer demand, we are planning additional capacity beyond 2027. Our capacity expansion is being driven by the transition to 6-inch Indium Phosphide production. Our 6-inch lines in Texas and Sweden are producing EMLs CW lasers, and photodiodes with yields that continue to exceed our 3-inch lines. We remain on track to begin 6-inch production in Zurich during the first half of calendar 2027, further extending what we believe is a meaningful manufacturing advantage. Our Texas facility has also begun ramping our ultra high power CW laser for CPO solutions. Including those covered by our NVIDIA partnership. With revenue expected to begin ramping in Q2. Turning to OCS, revenue increased in Q4 as we continue to ramp production. Given strong customer demand across our 320x320 platform, and other system sizes, we expect OCS revenue to grow significantly through fiscal 27. We continue to estimate that OCS represents more than $4 billion of addressable market opportunity across data center interconnect, scale-out and scale-up networks. As we expand production across 2 manufacturing locations, we expect OCS to become an increasingly meaningful contributor to revenue growth and margin expansion. CPO, NPO, and other forms of integrated optics represent a tremendous growth opportunity for Coherent. These technologies enable the transition from copper to optical connectivity represent more than $15 billion of incremental addressable market opportunity the coming years. At the ECOC industry event in September, we plan to unveil coherent PhotonLink, our new platform for integrated optics. PhotonLink spans the complete optical signal chain from light generation and beam shaping through transmission, detection, and conversion back to an electric signal for the XPU or switch ASIC. Platform supports CPO, NPO, and other forms of optical integration. PhotonLink leverages the breadth of coherent photonic technology portfolio and manufacturing capabilities to enable next generation data center architectures that use optical links to achieve new levels of bandwidth, performance, and energy efficiency. We have deep engagements with multiple customers across both TPO and NPO applications. We believe offer comparable content opportunities for Coherent. We expect initial revenue from PhotonLink related products to begin in our December quarter We will share additional details about PhotonLink at our launch event on September 21. Turning to our communications business, customer demand remained exceptionally strong in Q4. Communications revenue increased approximately 54% for full year fiscal 26. Q4 revenue increased 11% sequentially and 56% year over year, driven by continued strength across data center interconnect, scale-out, traditional telecom applications. We expect another quarter of strong sequential growth in Q1. Demand remains broad based across our portfolio with particular strength in DCI solutions, including ZR and ZR plus transceivers dwells pump lasers and complex high end optical subsystems. Multi rail is an important new growth opportunity in our communications business, addressing scale-out AI networking as workloads increasingly span multiple data centers require greater bandwidth between locations. We estimate a more than $2 billion addressable market by calendar 2030, continue to expect initial revenue to ramp in the first half of calendar 27. Preparation for the expected revenue ramp we recently delivered samples to multiple customers. We believe Coherent is well positioned with a broad technology portfolio differentiated density and power efficiency, strong customer engagement, We expect multi-rail to become a meaningful contributor to revenue growth and margin expansion over time. Turning to our Industrial segment, revenue was roughly flat on a pro forma basis in both fiscal 26 and Q4. In Q4, semiconductor capital equipment and display capital equipment both grew sequentially and year over year offset by continued weakness across broader industrial markets. We expect growth to resume over the coming quarters, led by semiconductor capital equipment where bookings continue to strengthen. Over the longer term, we see meaningful growth opportunities across several emerging applications, 1 example is data center XPU cooling where our proprietary thermodynamic material can improve thermal performance and enable higher XPU performance. Which can translate into greater AI token generation per XPU. We are engaged with multiple strategic customers and have delivered samples of our thermodynamic cooling solutions. We expect revenue to begin ramping in the second half of calendar 27, representing a meaningful expansion of our long term market opportunity. We also see longer term opportunities in fusion energy, quantum technologies, and micro LED display capital equipment. Overall, we believe industrial is positioned to return to growth and become an increasingly important source of revenue diversification over time. In summary, we enter fiscal 27 with exceptional customer demand, record visibility, expanding production capacity, and multiple new growth platforms beginning to ramp. We believe Coherent is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the multiyear expansion of AI data center infrastructure supported by the breadth of our photonic technology portfolio, our manufacturing scale, and our significant US production footprint. I want to thank the entire Coherent team for their outstanding execution and innovation throughout fiscal 26. I will now turn the call over to Sherri. Sherri R. Luther: Thank you, Jim. Fiscal 26 was an exceptional year for Coherent. We delivered record revenue of $7.12 billion, expanded gross margin by over 150 basis points, increased operating margin by nearly 300 basis points, and grew non GAAP earnings per share by 59% significantly faster than revenue growth. We also strengthened our balance sheet, reducing debt leverage to 0.7 times from 2 times at the end of FY 25 while continuing to invest in capacity as well as our product road map to support the growing AI data center and communications demand. Let me now provide a summary of our results. Fourth quarter revenue was a record $2.05 billion, up 13% sequentially and 34% year over year, driven by growth in AI data center and communications demand. On a pro forma basis, revenue increased 14% sequentially and 42% year over year. Excluding revenue from the aerospace and defense business and the Munich Germany product division, which were sold in Q1 and Q3, respectively. Full year 2026 revenue was $7.12 billion up 23% from 2025 and up 28% on a pro forma basis. AI data center and communication strength was the key driver of our full year 2026 revenue growth. Fiscal 26 was the first year in Coherent's history to exceed $7 billion in revenue. Our Q4 non GAAP gross margin was 40.2% a 66 basis point improvement compared to the prior quarter and a 215 basis point improvement compared to the year ago quarter. Our full year 2026 non GAAP gross margin was 39.4% up 152 basis points from 2025. Gross margin performance continued to improve both sequentially and year over year as a result of the initiatives we have been executing throughout fiscal 26. We saw benefits from our gross margin expansion strategy primarily within data center and communications segment. These improvements were driven by lower product input costs improved manufacturing yields and efficiencies, including continued progress on our 6-inch Indium Phosphide platform, as well as benefits from our pricing optimization efforts. We expect gross margin to continue to improve over the coming quarters as pricing optimization and cost structure improvements such as increasing capacity from our 6-inch Indium Phosphide platform continue to take effect. Fourth quarter non GAAP operating expense was $377 million compared to $348 million in the prior quarter and $307 million in the year ago quarter. Non GAAP operating expense as a percentage of revenue decreased to 18.4% in Q4 from 19.3% in Q3 and 20.1% in the year ago quarter. As we continue to focus on driving better leverage and operating efficiencies. Full year 2026 non GAAP operating expense increased to $1.35 billion from $1.17 billion in FY 2025 primarily driven by increased investments in our product portfolio. As a percent of revenue, operating expenses decreased 19% in 2026 from 20.1% in 2025. R&D expense as a percentage of revenue increased 10.2% in Q4 from 9.9% in the prior quarter and 9.8% in the year ago quarter. For the full year, R&D expense as a percentage of revenue increased 9.7% compared to 9.5% in FY 2025. The sequential and year over year increases were driven primarily by investments within the data center and communications segment product portfolio. R&D investments remain focused in areas where we see the strongest long term growth opportunities. Including transceivers, CPO, OCS systems, and thermal management solutions We continue to prioritize investments that address customer demand while generating attractive returns and supporting future growth. SG&A expense declined to 8.2% of revenue in Q4 compared to 9.4% in the prior quarter and 10.3% in the year ago quarter. For the full year, SG&A expense decreased 9.2% of revenue from 10.5% in FY 2025 reflecting continued progress and driving efficiencies and generating greater operating leverage. During fiscal 26, we made significant progress simplifying our operating model and driving greater operational efficiency. The expansion of our regional shared services structure has reduced costs improved process consistency, and improved leverage across our global operations. The benefits realized during the year exceeded our original expectations, and we expect these benefits to continue to increase throughout fiscal year 27. Our fourth quarter non GAAP operating margin increased to 21.8% compared to 20.3% in the prior quarter and 18% in the year ago quarter. Our full year 2026 non GAAP operating margin increased 20.5% from 17.8% in FY 2025. The increases for both Q4 and FY 2026 were driven by strong revenue growth continued gross margin expansion, and improved operating leverage. Fourth quarter non GAAP earnings per diluted share was $1.74 up 23% from the third quarter and up 74% from the year ago quarter. FY 2026 non GAAP earnings per share was $5.61 up 59% from FY 2025. Earnings growth continued to outpace revenue growth in both the quarter and the full year, driven by strong revenue performance gross margin expansion, and improved operating leverage. Our FY 2026 year end cash balance of 2.59 billion compares to $3.05 billion at the end of the prior quarter. And $1.63 billion at the end of FY 2025. Consistent with our capital allocation priorities we continued investing in opportunities that we believe will drive long term growth and profitability. These investments were primarily focused on expanding data center and communications capacity and advancing our product development road maps. During FY 2026, we made 513 million in debt payments exiting the year with a debt leverage ratio of 0.7 times compared to 2x at the end of FY 2025. Our capital expenditures increased $556 million up from $290 million last quarter and 131 million in the year ago period. This acceleration directly supports future growth across our data center and communications business These strategic investments are expected to yield excellent financial returns For example, the investments we are making in the data center business have a roughly 18 month payback period. Our conviction in these high return investments backed by excellent visibility from our customers with a robust pipeline of strong purchase orders and long term agreements. This CapEx is primarily directed towards advanced tooling and state of the art manufacturing equipment that accelerates our volume manufacturing capabilities and optimizes production yields. Furthermore, as a vertically integrated manufacturer, this capacity offers significant fungibility as our infrastructure can be dynamically repurposed support multiple product lines. Given the exceptional demand profile and clear ROI visibility, we expect capital expenditures to increase sequentially again in Q1. These results reflect strong customer demand, disciplined operational execution, continued progress on our gross margin expansion initiatives, and investments in the products and technologies that we believe will drive future growth. I will now turn to our guidance for the first quarter of fiscal 27. We expect revenue to be between 2.2 billion and 2.4 billion We expect non GAAP gross margin to be between 39.541.5% We expect total operating expenses of between $400 million and $420 million on a non GAAP basis We expect the tax rate for the quarter to be between 1.82 thousand% on a non GAAP basis. We expect EPS of between a $1.85 and $2.05 on a non GAAP basis. We are entering fiscal 27 with strong momentum. Supported by record backlog, excellent visibility into customer demand, and a significantly stronger financial position. We remain focused on expanding capacity, improving profitability, and allocating capital in a disciplined manner as we support future growth and drive long term shareholder value. That concludes my formal comments. Operator, please open the call for Q&A. Operator: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. 1 moment, while we poll for questions. Our first question is from Samik Chatterjee with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question. Joe: Hi, good afternoon and thanks for taking the questions. Maybe for my first, it sounds like you continue to make good progress on the 6-inch ramp and even hinting at further expansion beyond 2027. Can you provide us an update on the ramp and specifically how we should be thinking about how it translates into revenue and gross margins? And then I have a follow-up. Thank you. James Robert Anderson: Yes. Thanks, Samik, for the question. Yes, I would say, I am quite pleased with the progress on our 6-inch Indium Phosphide ramp. I think the team is doing just an outstanding job of ramping that production. As I mentioned in the prepared remarks, we are on track to double the output capacity of Indium Phosphide production. This quarter. that is 1 quarter earlier. Than our original plan. And then by the end of next calendar year, we expect to more than double it again. So we are on a pretty fast pace of expansion and executing well to that. And actually a little ahead of our plan. So really pleased with that And maybe a helpful data point just to kind of measure our progress along the way is if I look at our June quarter and I look at, well, how many lasers, Indium Phosphide lasers did we produce in our June quarter, on a year over year basis, we produced about 80 about 80% more Indium Phosphide lasers in our June quarter than we did the prior year. So 80% year over year growth. And those are the lasers that go specifically into our 800 gig transceivers and our 1.6T transceivers. And so that 80% growth year over year, I see that as a really good measure of progress towards, you know, continuing to expand our Indium Phosphide capacity. And then I think you asked how does that relate to revenue You know, that 80% growth in lasers in the June quarter, we use those basically go into transceiver shipments in the current quarter. And so we would expect our data center growth, for instance, this quarter on a year over year basis to exceed 80%. Right? We certainly got the lasers this quarter to make that happen, And so that is kind of how you can think about how it impacts the data center transceiver revenue growth. And, you know, I just a couple other comments on the progress. 1 of the things I continue to be pleased by is our yields. Our yields continue to be better than our 3-inch production. So yields of 6-inch better than 3-inch, and that is across all 3 devices that we have in production. That CW, EML, and photodiodes. And so all 3 showing better yields than 3-inch. And you know, another milestone that I mentioned in prepared remarks, we have now you know, we are starting production and ramping production of our ultra high power CW lasers that go into CPO applications. We will see revenue from those. We expect in our December quarter, it is our Texas and Sweden plants that are ramping right now. So we are ramping in 2 locations. 6 inch, and we will bring a third 6-inch location online We expect in the first half of calendar 27. So yeah, I would say the progress, quite pleased with it. So And then I it sounded like, Samik, you had a follow-up question? Joe: Yes. And the second 1 and very useful color there. Thanks, Jim. The second 1 is and maybe you started touching on this, but the CPO revenue starting in December quarter, Just curious, can you shed any light or additional color around the opportunity, both near and long term, just particularly given the recent noise surrounding it from the market perspective around concerns around delays and maybe the forward pull-in of NPO. Just curious in terms of if any other color you can share there just given kind of all that noise surrounding it. Thank you. James Robert Anderson: Yeah. Sure. Thanks, Samik. Yeah. First of all, we have seen absolutely no push out of CPO demand. In fact, it is been the opposite. We have seen demand increase and demand request from customers demand getting pulled in. And so we have only seen the opposite. And then that is on CPO specifically. And then the other thing that we have seen, especially over the last 3 to 6 months, is a significant ramp up in the engagement with customers on not just CPO, but now NPO. So I would say we have, you know, multiple very important engagements across many customers, around either CPO or NPO And so the, yeah, the intensity is has really gone up over the last 3 to 6 months. And so we are really pleased to see that. And just as a reminder, when we talk about integrated optics, whether it is CPO or NPO or any other form of it, we have a very wide portfolio that we can bring to our customers. it is not just 1 ingredient, but a really wide range of products. it is of course, it is the laser. We have you know, we have very strong laser capabilities. But the laser, the external laser module the optical components that go into that external laser module, like isolators, We manufacture polarization maintaining fiber. This is the type of fiber that you would use to connect the laser module to the device or the device back to the front panel We have got the we can do the full assembly of the entire fiber attach kit. We do the SiPho PICs. So we are able to bring to our customers a full range of integrated optics capability. And we see NPO or CPO to us, it is just a different form factor. The amount of content that we would have in an NPO application versus a CPO is very comparable, very similar. And so we are just we are driving whatever the customer prefers in terms of their type of application, CPO or NPO. We are there to support them. And then the other thing that we are going to be launching in September that I mentioned is a new platform technology platform called PhotonLink. And what we were seeing with customers around CPO and NPO is customers not wanting to just buy a point individual ingredient like a laser or an isolator, but really wanting help bringing the full the full solution. And so what PhotonLink is it is our integrated platform for basically being the 1 stop shop for integrated optics platform. And so it spans all the way from light generation to beam shaping and transport transmission to detection and conversion back to the signal. So we will talk more about it at our product launch event in September. But we think that is, you know, based on the initial customer reaction, great. You know, great solution for customers that want more of a complete solution. So we are pretty excited about that as well. Thank you. Appreciate all the details. Operator: Our next question is from Simon Leopold with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question. Simon Leopold: Great. Thank you very much for taking the question. The first thing I wanted to ask you about and I know this, it is not a done deal, but there is been press coverage on potential import restrictions for optical transceivers. And I think I have 2 parts to this question. The first aspect is what does it mean to Coherent specifically? And part of this would I think it applies to the CHIPS Act, creating US jobs. So could you in practice move transceiver manufacturing? Would you or could you move that to The US? And then I have got a follow-up. Thank you. James Robert Anderson: Yeah. Thanks, Simon. So, you know, that report is speculative at this point. But, you know, certainly, we would benefit from something like that as the as the main, you know, the largest US supplier of transceivers, something like that would certainly be beneficial. Although, you know, we always want to compete for our customers' business based on our technology and based on our manufacturing. And we think we have got the broadest, deepest photonic technology in the industry and the most extensive manufacturing footprint. And 1 of the things that we are really proud about on our manufacturing is of course, we are a global manufacturer with locations all over the world, which gives us resiliency. Of course, we are also vertically integrated. We build a number of the very important components ourselves. But, Simon, as you mentioned, we have an outside footprint in The US. We have over 20 production facilities in The US, and that I think is really a strategic advantage for us. You know, just 1 example is that Sherman, Texas facility. We are making very critical components in Sherman, Texas for not just transceivers, but for CPO and NPO applications. And there is other facilities throughout the US where we make other critical components like fiber optic cable, like growing the garnet that goes in the isolators for transceivers. So to the extent that we need to we are already investing US manufacturing, but to the extent we need to increase that US manufacturing we would certainly be open to doing that. We have got we were founded over 50 years ago as a US manufacturing company And so we have a great footprint, and we could certainly build off of that. Thanks. Simon Leopold: And then just the follow-up is I think it was you gave us a target for Q4 2027, June 2027 of revenue exceeding $3 billion I think that is well above current consensus. I would like to get a better sense then of what you are thinking about your gross margin. I know in the past, you have talked about a target of 42.5%. Wondering if you could update us given sort of the shifts in growth in the mix, how you are thinking about the gross margin trajectory? Thank you. James Robert Anderson: Yeah. I will pass that 1 on to Sherri to comment on gross margin. But the, you know, the quick version is that we have made, I think, great progress over the past quarters, and we are certainly super focused on continuing to make progress moving forward. But, Sherri, do you want to add color to that? Sherri R. Luther: Sure. Sure, Jim. Thanks, Simon. So first of I would like to say I am extremely pleased with the progress we have made in improving gross margin. We increased gross margin 66 basis points sequentially and 250 basis points year over year. In fact, in 8 out of the past 9 quarters, we have increased our gross margin. So that is not just a trend. that is showing that we are actively driving gross margin improvement. And the accumulation of improvement was over 660 basis points of improvement. So clearly, an area that we are actively driving and focused on. Now the target, that we gave at our Investor Day of greater than 42%. And at the midpoint of our Q1 guide, which is at 40.5%, you know, that is you know, certainly, we are we are still early. We have a little bit of ways to go. I do view that we are early in our you know, in our strategy for gross margin expansion, but we are extremely focused on getting to greater than 42%. And let me tell you why I am confident. The bulk of the 6-inch Indium Phosphide product ramp is still ahead of us. that is still to come. New product ramps for 1.6T OCS system CPO multi-rail systems, thermal management solutions, all of those new products, those ramps are all still to come. They are all ahead of us. And of course, we will continue to drive cost reductions, pricing optimization improvements, the bulk of those improvements driven to date are in these areas, and we have clear plans to drive you know, what I view as a very significant opportunity ahead. So once we get to our target of greater than 42%, we will no doubt raise the target. Thank you. Thanks, Simon. Thanks, Simon. Operator: Our next question is from George Notter with Wolfe Research. Please proceed with your question. George Notter: Hi, guys. Thanks very much. I guess I was just curious about where you are in terms of your transceiver mix right now. Obviously, there is an initiative to insource as much of those laser datacom chips as you can. I am just curious, like, how much of your mix is now, you know, insourced in terms of the laser datacom chip? And then also, I know there was a plan to kind of, you know, exceed your own internal needs and supply EMLs externally. I am just curious, like, what the road map looks like for, you know, selling EMLs commercially in the market. Thanks. James Robert Anderson: Yeah. Thanks, George. I think on the last point, given the demand that we see in our data center business with transceivers, I do not see any time in the near future where we would be selling Indium Phosphide lasers externally. Our data center transceiver demand is absorbing every bit of capacity. That we have and then some. So I do not I do not see any near term ability to do that. Maybe further out, but today, we use a mix of internal internally produced and externally sourced. I still believe that over the long term, we will have some portion of our datacom transceivers that will be supported by external sources. I think that is there is a number of strategic reasons why that is good for the transceiver business. But certainly, think as we expand our internal production, which is growing very quickly, I talked about the 80% year over year growth that we saw in laser production. In our June quarter, and that will grow from here given the ramp in Indium Phosphide, You know, I would expect over time for a greater percentage of our transceivers to be serviced with internal Indium Phosphide. Great, thank you. George Notter: And then just as a quick follow on, I am curious about where you are on VCSELs. It seems like there is a lot of new enthusiasm around VCSELs in scale up applications. Obviously, you guys are working on a 200G VCSEL. I am just curious about where that is and how do you see that opportunity for Coherent? Thanks. James Robert Anderson: Yeah. I think that is a great tool in our chest. Right? Is in our tool chest is the 200G VCSEL. We continue to make good progress on that. I do think that 200G VCSEL will see adoption in integrated optics applications. In you know, like, NPO type of applications. And so we are actively working with customers on VCSEL-related NPO or integrated optics application. So that is certainly an important tool, and, yeah, we think that will be deployed. Thank you. Operator: Our next question is from Ryan Koontz with Needham and Company. Please proceed with your question. Ryan Koontz: Great, thanks. I want to ask about your capacity constraints here. I wonder if you could look at kind of your input capacity constraints as well as your own internal production capacity constraints? And how should investors think about those and where you are investing now? But where are your sharpest pain points now to grow the business over the next 12 months? James Robert Anderson: Yeah. Thanks, Ryan. I would not say that any-- Indium Phosphide capacity continues to be our primary constraint. that is why we are so focused on ramping that 6-inch production. That we are not constrained, for instance, if you look at transceivers, we are not constrained in the assembly and test capacity right now. We have that capacity available. We are really just constrained by the ramp of the Indium Phosphide production. And so as we as we continue to ramp that Indium Phosphide output, we expect that to continue to help drive revenue growth for our transceivers. So it is it is really as simple as that. that is the primary constraint. Ryan Koontz: Helpful. Thank you. And maybe as you think about, the telecom side of the world and multi-rail and pump lasers and all that is involved there, You know, how do you, think about that monetization opportunity in terms of various parts or systems you might sell into that market? James Robert Anderson: Yeah. Thanks, Ryan. In that market, we actually sell a multiple different levels, so we do sell components into that market, we sell what I would call subsystems. So these should be amplifiers, line cards, in some cases, we will sell kind of full systems. And so we sell at multiple levels, and I would say the growth there is incredibly strong. You know, in communications, the kind of scale-out DCI falls within our communications business. We saw in our June quarter 56% year over year growth in that segment. I think that segment moving forward, we are gonna continue to see faster growth just as we have seen in the sort of data center applications and that is across, just a multiple different products, whether it is our ZR/ZR+, transceivers, whether it is some of the components like the pump lasers or the products that go into the pump lasers. And then as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, soon you know, we will start to see revenue from a multi-rail So the our technology for multi-rail systems is in the hands of customers now. We have sampled that. And we expect revenue to start to flow from multi-rail in the first half of calendar 27. So, yeah, there is just a wide range of products there, and I would say the demand just continues to go up for anything DCI or scale-out related. Super. Thanks, Jim. Operator: Our next question is from Blayne Curtis with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question. Blayne Curtis: Hey, good afternoon, guys. I had 2 questions. First, maybe you could just talk about the OCS demand. I mean, you mentioned the $4 billion TAM. I think you are starting to ship in smaller volumes. Can you just talk about where you are seeing the demand, how broad that is? And, you know, I think there is expanding applications as well, like inter-rack and such. Can you just comment on that? James Robert Anderson: Yeah. Definitely, Blayne. We are certainly seeing an expanding range of applications. So you know, originally, when we started working on OCS, we were thinking about it mostly in the in the context of scale out. But now, clearly, we think we will see adoption and scale-out and then a clear path to scale up as well. So have active customer engagements in scale up applications. And so that is really what led us to double the size of our market outlook at OFC earlier this year. So we doubled it from 2 to over 4 billion. And we may have even been conservative on that $4 billion number in terms of the addressable market over time. I think that was for a 2020, 2030 time frame. And so, yeah, we have only seen the application widen, and the demand looks stronger than what we had thought 6 or 12 months ago. So it looks very good. And then in terms of our progress, yeah, pleased with our progress. The demand is clearly at there, and so we are really just focused on ramping manufacturing capacity as fast as we can. We saw revenue grow in our June quarter, and as I look forward over the coming quarters, we expect to continue to expand production capacity and then drive faster revenue growth as well. So we believe it becomes a very meaningful product line over time for us. Thanks. Blayne Curtis: And then I want to go back to NPO. If you could just talk about, is there a way to kind of think about how many projects you are working on? And then I just wanna drill down on there is a lot of questions on you said the content would be similar to CPO. But then I think there is some talk about integrated, and then you answered a question talking about VCSELs. So can you just walk through that content? Where are you seeing the demand Is it kind of even on the projects you are working on now, and it might change in the future? Can you just walk through that? James Robert Anderson: Sure. And what I would say is with almost every customer that we work with, certainly large strategic customers, we have either a CPO or an NPO or in some cases, a CPO and NPO project ongoing. So and that is really that sort of intensity and engagement around CPO and/or NPO has really gone up over the last 3 to 6 months. And so I would say those engagements are very active. And just as a reminder, as I said earlier, we are, you know, we are not just bringing 1 ingredient like a laser to the solution. Bringing a full platform solution The laser, the interconnect, the different optical components etcetera. So we I would say, you know, engagements across all the major customers. And then on the second part of your question on the dollars of content, yeah, we see comparable levels of content for both CPO and NPO. To us, it is just a different attach point, whether it is connecting directly near the piece of silicon or whether it is on the motherboard, NPO or the level of content that we would see, we view as very similar. And maybe that is because we are we are providing a pretty broad range of solutions in both of those types of applications. But we see the level of content similar. And I would say all of this, I would point out, is incremental addressable market for us, but also for the optics industry in general. I mean, most of these projects are focused on scale up applications where we are gonna be converting more of those copper electrical lines to optical over the coming years. So it is it is great addressable market expansion for us, and we expect it to be a major growth area for us. Thanks, Tim. Operator: Our next question is from Karl Ackerman with BNP Paribas. Please proceed with your question. Karl Ackerman: Yes, thank you. I have 2, if I may. First question, Jim, you spoke about quarterly revenue exceeding $3 billion by the end of fiscal 27, which is quite robust. Could you unpack that a bit and describe how much of that is an uplift from perhaps 1.6T transceivers? You talked about OCS demand. You talked about multi rail. Perhaps how much of this is coming from any backlog or pricing as well If you just kind of bucketize those, it would be very helpful. And I have a follow-up. Yeah. James Robert Anderson: Thanks, Karl. So first of all, you know, that is all the primary driver there is data center and communications. We expect some improvement in industrial but it is really the bulk of that is driven by data center and communications given that is 80% of our revenue. And then within that, I would say, certainly, transceivers is a big driver of that. You know, we have got 800G is still growing very robustly on a year over year basis, and then 1.6T is ramping incredibly fast. In fact, we have seen the 1.6T ramp only the pull in be stronger, demand increase, and so that ramp is even faster than what we thought say, 3 months ago. So 800G, 1.6T transceiver is certainly a key part of that. But beyond that, OCS ramping through the course of this fiscal year. CPO now starting to really kick in, in the December our December quarter. And ramping in the following quarters. We talked about multi-rail as well And then, yeah, there are pricing improvements that we are driving, either kinda normal pricing improvements or pricing improvements are part of our LTAs, long term agreements with our customers. That are kicking in as well. So it is really a number of factors Across, you know, across data center and communications, we are I am trying to think if there is any product line where we are not supply constrained on. The demand is robust across almost every single product. Across data center and comms and it is really just a matter of as fast, we can sell as fast as we can ramp production. And so our we have had just an extreme focus on ramping production as quickly as possible. Thank you. Karl Ackerman: And then you also spoke about how customer orders extend into 2028 and LTAs to the end of the decade. When you discuss LTAs extending into 2028, is that volume committed in 2028 at a higher volume commitment 2027? Perhaps you could provide some guardrails with respect to the volume commitments that you are seeing today and how that is improved over the last 90 days? Thank you. James Robert Anderson: Yes. Thanks, Karl. So first of all, on the when I am talking about the near term, we are talking about purchase orders or backlog. And so in terms of backlog and bookings, we take, like, our June quarter, we saw I would call, just an extraordinary level of bookings, record bookings, again in our June quarter, and so our backlog now extends out--you know, fiscal 27 is basically completely booked out We are booked really through the end of calendar 2027. And what we are seeing now is, you know, customers now looking into calendar 2028. Right? So those are those are purchase orders for specific products etcetera. So that is really good because that is very high quality near term demand visibility. And then at the same time in parallel, a lot of customers putting in place long term agreements with us. Where long term agreements for supply over a multiyear period. Many of those periods extending out through the through the end of the decade. And yeah, generally, those agreements have, you know, increasing supply each year because what we are doing is we are expanding capacity to bring on or to support their demand requirements moving forward. So expanding capacity, expanding demand from them. And then they have pricing related commitments. And then they also have sort of minimum demand guarantees from our customers or sometimes you refer to those as take or pay agreements. And so those LTAs are also really helpful. Those give us a great visibility just beyond 2028. Those give us really good visibility into the key products we need to be building and the capacity we need to be expanding through the rest of the decade. Operator: Our next question is from Meta Marshall with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question. Meta Marshall: Great. Thanks so much. Maybe a question for Sherri. I know you alluded to 6-inch yields kind of being a big portion of the gross margin increase. But just as we think about into the next year, how much of that improvement is really the yield improvements versus maybe some of the product mix or pricing? And then second question, just in Jim, a question for you. I know it was kind of asked about you know, the potential restrictions being put into place. But just you know, have you seen kind of a change in customer urgency to get product? I know you are kind of sold out, but just in terms of a change in customer communication since over the past couple of weeks? Thanks. Operator: Thanks, Meta, for your question. Sherri R. Luther: So in terms of 6-inch yields, what I was mentioning is it is 6-inch cost structure. Because if you remember, we have talked about the fact that 6-inch wafers are--you know, we get 4x the amount of output from that from that wafer versus 3 inch. Right? 4 times, but it is at half the cost. So it is that cost structure that is beneficial to us. When I talk about, you know, what is ahead of us that will help drive, gross margin improvement, it is really that ramp of 6-inch Indium Phosphide products that will be beneficial to us because of the cost structure of 6 inch. And I think, Jim, you should have Yeah, and I will just reiterate I said earlier that when we look at yields for 6-inch, the yields for 6-inch are actually higher than our 3-inch production. And so, again, it is more the benefit of the 6-inch is the cost structure cost structure benefit. Operator: And then on the second part of your question around customer you know, sort of customer reaction to the to the recent writer's article. James Robert Anderson: I would say, yeah, we have seen there is a number of customers that have reached out to us and have engaged in, you know, discussion around manufacturing and exploring different options around that. And so, yeah, I would say that has spurred some new customer demand and supply discussions. And so those discussions are ongoing. Great. Thank you. Operator: Our next question is from Given Arya from Bank of America. Please proceed with your question. Given Arya: Thanks for taking my questions. For the first 1, Jim, CPO for scale up, what is the timeline for Coherent? Is it second half of 27? Is it 2028? And then how broad is it? And what is the pushback from customers who do not want to adopt it early? James Robert Anderson: Thanks, Vivek. As we have said this in the past. We continue to expect revenue from CPO for scale up applications to start to flow in the second half of calendar 27. And, yeah, that is been a consistent view for quite a while for us. And so the CPO that we are ramping right now will first go into scale out applications. And then that will continue to grow. And then scale up will kick in the second half of 27. And then you know, customers, I would say, within the scale up domain with customers, if we are not having a CPO discussion, they are at least considering or engage with us in NPO. So I think almost every customer that we have, certainly the big strategic customers, are engaged with us in a discussion of CPO or NPO. And there is just a differing views by our customers depending on their architecture, whether they would prefer an NPO app, an NPO sort of form factor to start with or CPO. And some customers that were engaged with an NPO, I expect to eventually transfer to CPO further down the line, and some are choosing to go directly to CPO. And so it really depends on the particular customer and comes down to their specific architecture. Got it. Thank you. Given Arya: And for my follow-up, maybe 1 more on gross margins. In the it is probably more nitpicking, but in the first half of the year, saw incremental gross margins that were more in the I think, mid forties or better. I think what you guided to for September is sort of in the low forties. I am just curious if there is anything specific for September and just broadly, how should we think about, incremental gross margin fall through for fiscal 27 given that you have kinda given us the bookends? For the year. Thank you. Sherri R. Luther: Yeah. So, Vivek, when you think about you think about gross margin improvement going forward, it is really driving the initiatives that I talked about, right? Continued cost reduction pricing optimization. We will continue to focus on that. The timing of those benefits, it is it is gonna differ because it just depends on the initiatives and when they kick in. As we ramp throughout the rest of this year, as Jim mentioned, that $3 billion revenue number, by the end of FY 27, and you talked about the revenue opportunities there. He mentioned new products, right? He mentioned 1.6T, OCS, CPO, all these things kicking in, which are going be beneficial to our gross margin. And so that will help drive improvements in gross margin as we move ahead. But when you talk about flow through on gross margin and what you can think about, the other thing that I would like to make sure that I call your attention to is that if you look at our operating expenses, in our Q1 guide that we provided at the midpoint of that guide, we are we are already below our operating our target model rather. So we gave a target model for OpEx just last year, in fact, of 18% for OpEx. And so the midpoint of our Q1 guide, we are already below that. And we are going to continue to drive operating efficiency. We have made tremendous progress on the SG&A front, but there is more operating leverage that we will get out of R&D as well. So when you think about total flow through, you know, keep that in mind as well. I just wanna point that out because I expect that there is significant opportunity to drive even greater operating leverage for the reasons that I just stated. Thank you. Operator: Our next question is from Michael Mani with Rosenblatt Securities. Please proceed with your question. Michael: Great. Thanks, Jim. it is really good to see the expectation for CPO laser revenues in the fiscal second quarter because that would imply that you are either qualified or have line of sight to qualification and would kind of you know, go against some of the fuzz. I think that is not coming from Wall Street, but more coming from a substack saying you guys are having trouble with that laser. Just any more color on, like, the confidence that, you know, you will be ready for the customer to actually recognize revenue in that quarter and just progress that is been made recently? Thanks. James Robert Anderson: Yeah. I am really pleased with the progress. I think the team's done a great job. I actually think our design on that particular laser is outstanding and has some significant technical advantages and production advantages. And, yeah, we have we have already started production wafers for those shipments in our December quarter, and that customer continues to tell us to please ship more as fast as possible. So, yeah, I think we feel really good about that. And but just as a reminder, it is not just lasers. Right? We supply lasers, external laser modules, the different optical connectors, the fiber optic cable, the fiber attach unit. there is a there is a lot of content that we supply just beyond just the laser. But, certainly, laser is a key ingredient. Great. Michael: Sounds good. Last question. You have mentioned already repeatedly about the LTAs, which gives you revenue visibility. My question is, does that also give you pricing visibility and specifically, you know, how far into the future do you think that prices of lasers will keep rising when you sort of weigh your LTAs and the and the amount of capacity that is been added and the potential for increasing competition may be coming from China. But your confidence sort of how far out you think before we have to worry about, you know, laser prices not going up anymore? James Robert Anderson: Yeah. it is a good question, Michael. The so when we when we do LTAs, they almost always have not just a volume commitment, but agreed upon pricing as well. And so the pricing is set for I think, all or almost all of our LTAs out through the length of the LTA. Some of those are 3 years. Many of those go out through the rest of the decade. So that gives us great visibility on not just the volume that we need to go drive, but the pricing that we can expect as well. So it is it is good visibility from both those aspects. Thanks for taking the questions. Appreciate it. Thank you. Operator: This concludes our Q and A session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Jim Anderson for closing comments. James Robert Anderson: Yes. Thanks, operator, and thanks again for joining us on the call today. So we are certainly entering our fiscal 27 with great momentum exceptional customer demand, and really accelerating growth prospects given the capacity and the ramp in new growth platforms ahead of us. I think with our with our photonic technology and manufacturing scale, I think the company is just really well positioned moving forward. I just want to say thanks again to our employees, for their great work in fiscal 26 and to all of our customers, partners, and shareholders for their support. So thank you, and we will look forward to updating you again in another quarter. Operator: This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation. Before you buy stock in Coherent, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Coherent wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. 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As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Coherent. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Coherent (COHR) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Coherent’s second quarter results for 2026 surpassed Wall Street’s revenue and profit expectations, yet the market responded negatively. Management identified exceptional demand in the data center and communications segments, with CEO James Anderson attributing the growth to a surge in AI-driven optical networking and ongoing production capacity expansion, particularly in their 6-inch Indium Phosphide lines. CFO Sherri Luther emphasized improved cost structure and greater operating leverage as additional contributors. Despite these achievements, cautious commentary around supply constraints and industry uncertainties shaped investor sentiment. Is now the time to buy COHR? Find out in our full research report (it’s free). Revenue: $2.05 billion vs analyst estimates of $1.99 billion (33.7% year-on-year growth, 2.9% beat) Adjusted EPS: $1.74 vs analyst estimates of $1.62 (7.6% beat) Adjusted Operating Income: $445.8 million vs analyst estimates of $426.5 million (21.8% margin, 4.5% beat) Revenue Guidance for Q3 CY2026 is $2.3 billion at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of $2.14 billion Adjusted EPS guidance for Q3 CY2026 is $1.95 at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of $1.77 Operating Margin: 12.4%, up from 0.4% in the same quarter last year Market Capitalization: $60.01 billion While we enjoy listening to the management’s commentary, our favorite part of earnings calls is the analyst questions. Those are unscripted and can often highlight topics that management teams would rather avoid or topics where the answer is complicated. Here is what has caught our attention. Samik Chatterjee (JPMorgan) asked how the 6-inch Indium Phosphide ramp translates into revenue and margins. CEO James Anderson explained that output increased 80% year-over-year, directly supporting transceiver revenue, and yields are improving, which should benefit gross margin as production scales. Simon Leopold (Raymond James) inquired about potential import restrictions for optical transceivers and the company’s U.S. manufacturing. Anderson stated that Coherent’s large U.S. footprint is a strategic advantage, with over 20 production facilities domestically, and the company is prepared to increase U.S. output if needed. George Notter (Wolfe Research) asked about the mix of internally produced versus externally sourced datacom lasers. Anderson replied that internal production is absorbing all current demand and that external sourcing will remain a component for strategic reasons, but internal share will grow as capacity expands. Ryan Koontz (Needham & Company) questioned supply constraints and where future investment is most needed. Anderson identified Indium Phosphide production as the primary bottleneck and said that expanded internal manufacturing is critical to removing these constraints. Blayne Curtis (Jefferies) sought clarity on the addressable market for Optical Circuit Switching and new integrated optics opportunities. Anderson noted the market outlook for OCS has doubled and that both CPO and NPO projects are seeing active customer engagement, representing incremental growth. In the quarters ahead, the StockStory team will be watching (1) the pace of Indium Phosphide capacity expansion and its effect on transceiver shipments, (2) the rollout and customer adoption of the PhotonLink integrated optics platform, and (3) the scaling of Optical Circuit Switching and multi-rail systems as new revenue streams. Progress in industrial diversification and execution against long-term customer agreements will also serve as key indicators of sustainable growth. Coherent currently trades at $301.75, down from $355.64 just before the earnings. At this price, is it a buy or sell? The answer lies in our full research report (it’s free for active Edge members). ONE MORE THING: Top 5 Growth Stocks. The biggest stock winners almost always had one thing in common before they ran. Revenue growing like crazy. Meta. CrowdStrike. Broadcom. Our AI flagged all three. They returned 315%, 314%, and 455%, respectively. Find out which 5 stocks it’s flagging this month — FREE. Get Our Top 5 Growth Stocks for Free HERE. Stocks that have made our list include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,460% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-small-cap company Comfort Systems (+1,154% between June 2020 and June 2025). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.

We gave Coherent’s COHR fiscal fourth-quarter results a few trading sessions to settle before revisiting the investment case. That pause has produced a useful signal: COHR stock has declined only about 1.3% since the Aug. 12 release, an effectively negligible move for a stock tied to the volatile AI-infrastructure trade. The subdued reaction does not appear to reflect weak results. Instead, it likely captures a balance between impressive fiscal 2027 guidance and expectations that were already elevated. Coherent now must turn extraordinary demand into output while managing heavy capacity investment and a lingering contraction in its industrial business. Fiscal fourth-quarter revenues crossed $2 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus estimate by 2.7% and increasing 33.8% year over year and 13.3% sequentially. On a pro forma basis, adjusting for divested operations, growth was approximately 42%. The result also exceeded the preceding quarter’s $1.8 billion and marked Coherent’s first quarter above $2 billion. Image Source: COHR Full-year revenues rose 22.5% year over year to a record $7.1 billion from $5.8 billion. Pro forma growth was stronger at approximately 28%, reinforcing that the underlying portfolio expanded faster than the reported total after accounting for business sales. The Datacenter & Communications segment provided nearly all the momentum. Quarterly segment revenues climbed to $1.6 billion, up 58.6% year over year and 18.6% quarter over quarter. It represented roughly 79% of consolidated revenues, compared with about 67% a year earlier. Industrial revenues moved in the opposite direction, falling 15.8% year over year and 3% sequentially to $430.5 million. For the full year, Datacenter & Communications advanced 40.5% to $5.275 billion, while Industrial declined 10.3% to $1.8 billion. Coherent’s growth profile is therefore becoming more concentrated around AI networking and optical connectivity. The earnings quality improved alongside revenues. GAAP gross margin expanded to 38.5%, up 277 basis points year over year and 82 basis points sequentially. Non-GAAP gross margin reached 40.2%, improving 215 basis points annually and 66 basis points from the fiscal third quarter. Image Source: COHR Manufacturing yields, lower input costs, pricing actions and progress on six-inch indium phosphide production contributed to the expansion. The six-inch platform is especially important because it can produce roughly four times the output at about half the cost of the older three-inch process. Non-GAAP operating income increased 62.1% year over year and 21.8% sequentially to $446 million. The corresponding operating margin reached 21.8%, expanding 381 basis points year over year and 152 basis points quarter over quarter. Adjusted net income rose 82.7% annually and 27.2% sequentially to $351 million. Non-GAAP EPS increased 74% year over year and 23.4% quarter over quarter to $1.74, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 7.4%. GAAP EPS improved to $1.19 from a loss of $0.83 one year earlier and $0.97 in the preceding quarter. For the first quarter of fiscal 2027, Coherent expects revenues of $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion. The $2.3 billion midpoint implies approximately 12.4% sequential growth and about 45.6% growth from first-quarter fiscal 2026 revenues of $1.58 billion. The comparison is not perfectly like-for-like because of portfolio changes, but the acceleration remains substantial. The company expects non-GAAP gross margin of 39.5%-41.5%. Its 40.5% midpoint would represent a modest 30-basis-point sequential improvement. Projected adjusted EPS of $1.85-$2.05 implies midpoint growth of 12.1% from the fiscal fourth quarter and approximately 68% year over year. This outlook probably explains why the post-report decline has remained minor. Guidance exceeded the prior quarter’s scale and established a credible path toward a quarterly revenue run rate above $3 billion by fiscal 2027’s end. However, that target also raises the execution threshold embedded in COHR shares. Indium phosphide production remains the principal constraint, although output is scheduled to double year over year during the current quarter. Demand visibility extends into calendar 2028, supported by long-term agreements running through the decade. Additional growth should come from 800-gigabit and 1.6-terabit transceivers, optical circuit switching, co-packaged optics, multi-rail systems and the PhotonLink platform. Supporting those opportunities requires substantial spending. Fourth-quarter capital expenditures reached $556 million, while full-year additions to property, plant and equipment surged 150.2% to $1.103 billion. Annual operating cash flow nevertheless fell 87.5% to $79.5 million. Inventory increased 79.5% year over year to $2.581 billion, considerably faster than revenues. Although expanding inventory can support a rapid production ramp, it also raises working-capital and demand-forecasting risk. Positively, total debt declined approximately 12.6% to $3.222 billion, and cash increased 27.8% to $1.162 billion. Coherent earns a Hold because its operating momentum is powerful, but the investment case now demands flawless delivery. AI-driven optical demand, improving manufacturing economics and broader product ramps support durable growth, while rising margins show that revenues are converting into profit. Yet capacity remains the bottleneck, capital intensity is climbing, inventory has expanded sharply, and the industrial business is still shrinking. The muted post-earnings reaction suggests investors already recognize both the opportunity and the execution burden. Existing shareholders can stay positioned for the optical buildout, but fresh buyers should await clearer evidence that capacity expansion translates smoothly into cash generation. COHR currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Trane Technologies TT reported impressive second-quarter 2026 results. TT’s adjusted earnings of $4.31 per share beat the consensus mark by 0.9% and rose 11.1% from the year-ago quarter’s actual. TT’s total revenues of $6.35 billion surpassed the consensus mark by 2.9% and increased 6.4% year over year. Rollins ROL posted unimpressive second-quarter 2026 results. ROL’s adjusted earnings of 32 cents per share missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5.9% but rose 6.7% year over year. Total revenues of $1.08 billion fell short of the consensus estimate by 1.7% but increased 7.9% from the year-ago quarter. Verisk VRSK reported second-quarter 2026 diluted adjusted earnings of $1.98 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.94 by 2.1%. The figure increased 5.3% from the year-ago quarter. Revenues of $806.3 million topped the consensus mark of $802.4 million by 0.5% and rose 4.3% year over year. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Coherent Corp. (COHR) : Free Stock Analysis Report Rollins, Inc. (ROL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Verisk Analytics, Inc. (VRSK) : Free Stock Analysis Report Trane Technologies plc (TT) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Fabrinet crashed 20% on decelerating Q1 guidance after running up 25% pre-earnings, dragging Marvell down 8% and Amphenol 7%. Coherent fell 12% and Lumentum dropped 10% despite posting datacenter revenue growth of 59% and 109% last quarter. Anthropic's $65 billion ARR missing $80 billion expectations and the 30-year Treasury hitting a 19-year high amplified selling across AI hardware. Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Marvell Technology didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. Shares of Fabrinet (NYSE:FN) are down roughly 20% at midday Tuesday, trading near $476 after the optical manufacturer posted a fiscal Q4 beat but disappointed a market already primed to sell AI infrastructure names. The move is dragging the whole optical and connectivity complex lower. Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) is off nearly 8%, Amphenol (NYSE:APH) is down about 7%, Coherent (NYSE:COHR) is off about 12%, Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE) has dropped roughly 10%, and Corning is down nearly 8%. After Monday's close, Fabrinet reported record Q4 revenue of $1.316 billion, up 45% year over year and above guidance. Non-GAAP EPS came in at $4.10 versus $2.65, an all-time high. Full-year revenue reached $4.64 billion, up 36%. CEO Seamus Grady called the quarter "exceptional, capping off a remarkable year of accelerating growth and strong momentum." View the 8-K filing here. The problem is positioning. FN ran up roughly 14% in the week and 25% in the month heading into the earnings report, and Q1 guidance of $1.375 billion to $1.425 billion implies a far more modest sequential step-up than the 45% YoY quarter just delivered. Add a disclosed $56.7 million loss on non-marketable equity securities and heavy capex that pushed Q4 free cash flow to negative $36.9 million, and a beat-and-raise turned into a "good but decelerating" setup. This is Fabrinet's largest earnings-day drop in the last six quarters, roughly 2.2x the typical post-earnings selloff. Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Marvell Technology didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. Fabrinet lit the fuse. Macro caught it. Over the weekend, Anthropic told investors ARR hit $65 billion at the end of July, huge growth but below the $80 billion-plus figures Gavin Baker had cited on The All In Podcast. Reuters then reported Anthropic's own 2028 revenue estimate of $190 billion to $200 billion, again below what some investors were modeling. The Wall Street Journal capped it, reporting that nine top tech companies carry roughly $3 trillion of off-balance-sheet commitments mostly related to AI, growing faster than traditional capex. The 30-Year Treasury hit a 19-year high today, and with the 10-year yield at 4.7%, near a 12-month high, long-duration AI hardware names are the natural fade. The Marvell and Amphenol declines reflect more than one contract manufacturer's guidance. Marvell just guided Q2 to $2.7 billion, implying 35% YoY growth, with CEO Matt Murphy citing "exceptional AI-related bookings." Coherent's fiscal Q4 datacenter revenue was up 59% YoY. Lumentum's Q4 revenue grew 109%. This is a positioning and sentiment reset landing on a red-hot cohort of optics, connectivity, and infrastructure suppliers behind the AI buildout (we profiled seven of these picks-and-shovels names, from power to cooling to networking, in a free report here: 7 Stocks Powering the AI Boom). Lumentum is still up roughly 736% over the past year, and Coherent 276%. Elevated expectations were the fuel; today they are the risk. Watch whether analyst targets Fabrinet, currently at a consensus $732, get trimmed into the close. NVIDIA reports next week, and its data center commentary will decide whether today is a shakeout or the start of something larger. Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Marvell Technology didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Find winning stocks in any market cycle. Join 7 million investors using Simply Wall St's investing ideas for FREE. Coherent stock has surged over the past few years, yet the valuation signals are split, with a Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) intrinsic value estimate pointing to upside while market multiples lean expensive. Coherent has delivered a very large return of around 8x over the past 3 years, which puts extra focus on whether today’s price still reflects its fundamentals. Investor expectations around AI related optical and data center demand can support the current valuation, while any slowdown in that demand would quickly test how much optimism is already priced in. The company scores 3 out of 6 on our valuation checks, which points to a mixed picture rather than a clear bargain or a clear overvaluation. The issue now is whether Coherent’s current share price leaves enough room between the market valuation and the intrinsic value estimate to compensate you for the risks. Coherent delivered 260.1% returns over the last year. See how this stacks up to the rest of the Electronic industry. The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model estimates what Coherent might be worth based on its future cash flows. Coherent currently has latest twelve month free cash flow of about $684 million in outflow, so the model assumes a recovering and then growing cash flow profile over the next decade rather than a steady state business. On those assumptions, the DCF points to an intrinsic value around $522 per share, which is about 37.6% above the current share price implied by the model input. The recent news that Nvidia plans a $2 billion investment in Coherent helps explain why the cash flow outlook used in the model is relatively optimistic even after a period of weak free cash generation. On this cash flow view, Coherent stock appears undervalued relative to the DCF based intrinsic value estimate. Our Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis suggests Coherent is undervalued by 37.6%. Track this in your watchlist or portfolio, or discover 52 more high quality undervalued stocks. Head to the Valuation section of our Company Report for more details on how we arrive at this Fair Value for Coherent. The P/E ratio is a useful way to see what you are paying today for each dollar of Coherent’s earnings. Coherent currently trades around 82.9x earnings, which is very close to the 81.6x peer average for similar stocks in its space. However, a more tailored fair P/E for Coherent that factors in its growth profile, margins, size and risk sits lower at about 68.8x. That is a clear gap to the current 82.9x, which indicates investors are paying a premium relative to what this framework would typically assign for the business. Coherent also sits well above the wider electronic industry average P/E of 31.5x, which highlights how much optimism is embedded in the price on this metric. On the P/E multiple, Coherent stock appears overvalued compared with both its modelled fair ratio and the broader industry. See what the numbers say about this price — find out in our valuation breakdown. Simply Wall St Narratives pick up where this valuation split for Coherent leaves off. They spell out the specific assumptions about Coherent's future growth, margins and earnings that would need to be true for the stock to be worth materially more or materially less than today's price, and they sit on Simply Wall St's Community page. Each one turns its view of fair value into a thesis about Coherent's business that you can revisit over time, rather than a one-off snapshot. Community views on Coherent sit far apart, with some investors focusing on AI upside potential and others worrying about how much can realistically be delivered. Bull case: 17% undervalued Read the full Bull Case to see why Coherent could be undervalued Bear case: 16% overvalued Read the full Bear Case to see why Coherent could be overvalued Do you think there's more to the story for Coherent? Head over to our Community to see what others are saying! For Coherent, the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) intrinsic value estimate points to meaningful upside, while the P/E based view screens the stock as overvalued. That split comes from very different lenses. The intrinsic value view leans on future cash flow recovery and capital needs, while the market multiple reflects already high growth expectations and strong sentiment after a very large 3 year move. The main question from here is whether AI driven optical and data center demand can support the cash flow path embedded in the intrinsic value model, rather than the current valuation turning into a value trap if that demand underwhelms. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include COHR. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email [email protected]

Shares of optical technology leaders Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE) and Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) experienced some action after the quarterly reports. During the August 12 episode of CNBC's Mad Money, Jim Cramer highlighted the short-term disconnect between market trading dynamics and business fundamentals in the optical hardware space. He noted: The optics rally was set off by Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE), which reported FQ4 2026 net revenue of $1.01 billion, up 109% year-over-year, beating consensus estimates. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share reached $3.23, topping Wall Street expectations by $0.26. Lumentum issued upbeat guidance for Q1 fiscal 2027, projecting net revenue between $1.225 billion and $1.275 billion with non-GAAP EPS of $4.05 to $4.35. The company’s non-GAAP operating margin is projected at 39.5% to 40.5%. The beat-and-raise report sent Lumentum shares surging and sparked a rally across the photonics sector. Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) delivered a strong FQ4 2026 report of its own. The company posted net revenue of $2.05 billion, a 34.0% year-over-year increase, surpassing consensus estimates by $70 million. Non-GAAP EPS came in at $1.74, beating Wall Street expectations by $0.12. For Q1 fiscal 2027, Coherent provided a strong guidance, forecasting revenue between $2.2 billion and $2.4 billion along with non-GAAP EPS of $1.85 to $2.05. Non-GAAP gross margin is expected between 39.5% and 41.5%, with non-GAAP operating expenses forecasted at $400 million to $420 million and an effective non-GAAP tax rate of 18% to 20%. However, despite top- and bottom-line beats and strong forward guidance, Coherent shares slid in after-hours trading. As Cramer observed, the after-hours dip was a textbook "sell-the-news" reaction after the stock had already gained over 8% during regular hours in anticipation of the results. Smart money positioning reflects rising hedge fund interest across the two names despite elevated valuation multiples. Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE), trading at a forward P/E of 43.10, saw hedge fund holders jump to 123 in Q1 2026, up from 97 in the prior quarter, though accompanied by a higher short interest of 12.16% of float. On the other hand, Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) carries a more moderate forward P/E of 32.89 and counted 114 hedge funds holding positions in Q1, up from 109 previously, with a lower short interest of 5.42% of float. While short-term trading dynamics and valuation-driven pullbacks can cause temporary volatility, both companies continue to show strong multi-quarter demand visibility across their optical networking portfolios. As long as hyperscalers continue scaling massive AI clusters where optical transceivers serve a critical bottleneck, both companies are positioned at the epicenter of multi-year secular growth. While we acknowledge the potential of LITE and COHR as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: Jim Cramer Weighs In on SoFi’s (SOFI) $16–$19 Range  and Is Lam Research, KLA, or Applied Materials the Best Chip Equipment Buy? Jim Cramer Weighs In. Disclosure: None. Follow Insider Monkey on Google News.

The gain was set before the results crossed, and its optical peers rose with it. Coherent (COHR) stock gained about 9% on Wednesday, which reads like a market applauding a good quarter. The timing says otherwise. The fourth-quarter results did not cross until after the closing bell, so the entire session's gain was locked in before anyone outside the company had seen a figure, and the coverage that followed the release reported the stock slipping despite the beat. Its Optical Peers Rose That Same Session The tape points away from anything Coherent-specific. LITE gained 13.6% over the same window, MKSI 4.2%, IPGP 1.8%, against 0.3% for the S&P 500. The day was framed in advance as a same-session read on the AI networking build-out, with Cisco Systems also reporting after that close, and buyers who could not yet have seen either set of numbers paid up across the group. That is exposure to a theme, not to a company, and a single session can reprice an entire group. The Trefis High Quality Portfolio does not depend on the handful of largest technology names to produce its returns. Indium Phosphide, Not Orders, Sets The Ceiling Coming into Wednesday, the stock was already up about 205% over the trailing year. On a run like that, a beat and an above-consensus outlook are the price of admission, not a surprise. The fiscal Q4 report (ended June) put record revenue of $2.05 billion on the board, up 34% year over year and 42% excluding two businesses sold during the year, with data center and communications at 79% of the total. What the report did not settle is how fast that demand converts into product. Management names Indium Phosphide capacity as the primary constraint, and Indium Phosphide lasers are what sit inside its 800G and 1.6T transceivers. The company produced about 80% more of those lasers in the June quarter than a year earlier, and yields on its 6-inch lines in Texas and Sweden are running above those on its 3-inch lines. Watch The Ramp, Not The Reaction Management expects internal Indium Phosphide output capacity to double year over year by the end of the September quarter, a quarter ahead of the original plan, with guidance for that period of $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion. Beyond transceivers, first revenue from co-packaged optics is expected in the December quarter, carried by ultra-high-power CW lasers that its Texas plant has begun to ramp. Those two ramps decide whether the order book turns into revenue. The stock itself is the noisier variable: in the six sessions before Wednesday it rose 13.4% on one day and fell 14.2% on another, which is a wide swing for a business whose order book management describes as booked out. If you are sizing a position around the next print, the useful record is how this stock has actually traded through its own earnings, rather than how it traded into this one. A Ramp Is A Schedule, And Schedules Slip Coherent's demand looks booked, but its delivery runs through one material and a small number of plants, and that is timing risk no single position can spread. The Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio is built the other way, as a system rather than a bet on one company's schedule. That portfolio has a track record of outpacing the three major indices - the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap, and Russell 2000.