At one point, the intraday spike was 50%! AI data center demand sparks AEHR Test Systems (AEHR.US) orders, analysts' target price nearly doubles to $125

The Zhitong Finance App learned that semiconductor testing solutions company Aehr Test Systems (AEHR.US) has become another company benefiting from the boom in data center construction driven by artificial intelligence. The company announced results and guidelines for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026 on Wednesday. The number of quarterly bookings reached a record high. At one point, the stock price soared more than 50%, and closed up 22% on the same day.

Strong results prompted Craig-Hallum analysts to reconfirm the “buy” rating and nearly double the target price to $125 from $68 previously.

Analysts Christian Schwab (Christian Schwab) and Ben Taxdahl (Ben Taxdahl) stated in Wednesday's research report: “The company expects significant business growth in the next fiscal year, with revenue guidance of 130 million to 150 million US dollars for fiscal year 2027, and 50 million US dollars for fiscal year 2026, which means that revenue will increase by about 160% to 200% year over year, mainly driven by the adoption of AI and hyperscale customers.”

They expect the business structure to be similar to the previous fiscal year. Based on the median value of 140 million US dollars, the AI data center business accounts for about 70% of total revenue, or about 98 million US dollars (about 35.5 million US dollars in the previous fiscal year); the silicon photonics business accounts for about 20%, or about 28 million US dollars (about 10 million US dollars in the previous fiscal year); the rest (power semiconductors and others) accounts for about 10%, or about 14 million US dollars (about 4.5 million US dollars in the previous fiscal year).

The semiconductor test equipment manufacturer's fourth-quarter order volume reached a record high of US$60.7 million, with an effective backlog of orders of US$100.6 million. The company expects revenue for the full year of fiscal year 2027 to be between US$130 million and US$150 million, far higher than the general market expectation of US$85 million.

Aehr CEO Gayn Erickson (Gayn Erickson) said during the performance call: “Based on our current predictions from wafer-level and package-level aging test platform customers, we think there is an opportunity to further improve revenue guidance as more orders are placed. Even at $150 million in revenue, we are confident that production capacity will not be a limit.”

Erickson also explained how the company is rapidly diversifying its revenue streams: “To illustrate our progress in diversifying into more high-growth markets, just two years ago, more than 95% of our business depended on the EV silicon carbide market; now, nearly 95% of our revenue in fiscal 2026 comes from the non-electric vehicle silicon carbide market. The reliability of AI accelerators, CPUs, and network processors, and wafer-level aging testing and screening for mass production are the fastest growing markets this year, accounting for about 71% of total annual revenue.”

Craig-Hallum raised its revenue forecast for the full year of fiscal year 2027 from $80 million to $131.7 million, while also drastically raising the earnings forecast per share from $0.20 to $0.74 (an increase of more than two times).

Other semiconductor testing companies had mixed results on Wednesday: Cohu (COHU.US) rose slightly by 0.7% and Teradyne (TER.US) fell 2.5%.