Feb. 20 at 7:31 PM
$PLAB I had been hoping for a better entry after missing last Q, but apparently not going to get it
PLAB manufactures photomasks for integrated circuits - they etch the blueprint of a chip onto a quartz plate which fabs then use to transfer designs to the wafer level. Every design requires a unique photomask so the cycle is driven by both design intensity and absolute volume
As with something like
$TTMI (which does PCBs) this is a a foundational, bottom of the supply chain product touching every single AI processor. AI processors require increasingly complex photomasks and more of them per design driving higher volume at higher ASP. Moreover they are the only photomask manufacturer in the US (like TTMI in PCBs) giving them a monopoly on the re-shoring occurring
Gross margin is mid 30% and operating margin is high 20% (TTMI ~20% and LDD% for reference). We likely see accelerating growth and expanding margin for some rapid upward EPS revisions from currently muted estimates
