ACM Research, Inc. CAPEX surged on 1,440% and Revenue jumped on 45.7%
02/25/2021 • About ACM Research, Inc. (
$ACMR) • By InTwits
ACM Research, Inc. reported 2020 financial results today. Here are the key drivers of the company's long term financial model:
- ACM Research, Inc. is a fast growth stock: 2020 revenue growth was 45.7%, 5 year revenue CAGR was 38.1% at 2020 ROIC 10.2%
- EBITDA Margin is quite volatile: 15.4% in 2020, 18.6% in 2019, 9.2% in 2018, 2.7% in 2017, 13.4% in 2016
- ACM Research, Inc. has low CAPEX intensity: 5 year average CAPEX/Revenue was 3.5%. At the same time it's in pair with industry average of 3.7%
- CAPEX is quite volatile: $15m in 2020, $1m in 2019, $2m in 2018, $1m in 2017, $1m in 2016
- The company has business model with average profitability: ROIC is 10.2%
Below you can find a comprehensive analysis of the key data driving the company's performance and the stock price.
Revenue and profitability
ACM Research, Inc.'s Revenue jumped on 45.7%. Revenue growth showed acceleration in 20Q4 - it increased 85.2% YoY. Having declining revenue the company managed to increase EBITDA margin. EBITDA Margin increased slightly on 0.92 pp from 8.3% to 9.2% in 2020.
Gross Margin decreased on 2.7 pp from 47.1% to 44.4% in 2020. Gross Margin followed a declining trend at -0.86 pp per annum in the last 5 years. SG&A as a % of Revenue showed almost no change in 2020. During the last 5 years SG&A as a % of Revenue topped in 2017 at 31.2% and was declining since that time.
Net Income margin decreased on 5.6 pp from 17.6% to 12.0% in 2020.
Investments (CAPEX, working capital and M&A)
ACM Research, Inc.'s CAPEX/Revenue was 9.5% in 2020. ACM Research, Inc. showed CAPEX/Revenue growth of 7.8 pp from 1.8% in 2017 to 9.5% in 2020. It's average level of CAPEX/Revenue for the last three years was 4.3%. To deliver its fast growth ACM Research, Inc. invested a large share of EBITDA (62.1%) to CAPEX.
Return on investment
The company operates at good ROE (15.8%) while ROIC is low (10.2%). ROIC decreased on 4.8 pp from 14.9% to 10.2% in 2020. ROE decreased on 9.5 pp from 25.3% to 15.8% in 2020.
Leverage (Debt)
Debt level is -0.9x Net Debt / EBITDA and 2.1x Debt / EBITDA. Debt surged on 184% while cash jumped on 23.2%.
ACM Research, Inc. has no short term refinancing risk: cash is higher than short term debt (246.2%).
Valuation and dividends
ACM Research, Inc.'s trades at EV/EBITDA 56.7x and P/E 73.9x.
Financial and operational results
FY ended 12/31/2020
ACM Research, Inc. ($ACMR) key annual financial indicators| mln. $ | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2020/2019 |
|---|
P&L
|
|---|
| Revenue | 27.4 | 36.5 | 74.6 | 107.5 | 156.6 | 45.7% |
| Gross Profit | 13.3 | 17.2 | 34.4 | 50.7 | 69.6 | 37.4% |
| SG&A | 6.6 | 11.4 | 17.6 | 20.0 | 29.0 | 45.2% |
| EBITDA | 3.7 | 1.0 | 6.9 | 20.0 | 24.1 | 20.4% |
| Net Income | 1.0 | -0.3 | 6.6 | 18.9 | 18.8 | -0.6% |
Balance Sheet
|
|---|
| Cash | 10.1 | 17.7 | 27.1 | 58.3 | 71.8 | 23.2% |
| Short Term Debt | 4.8 | 5.1 | 9.4 | 15.1 | 29.2 | 93.0% |
| Long Term Debt | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.5 | 20.9 | 723.8% |
Cash flow
|
|---|
| Capex | 0.8 | 0.7 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 15.0 | 1,440.2% |
Ratios
|
|---|
| Revenue growth | -12.3% | 33.4% | 104.5% | 44.1% | 45.7% | |
| EBITDA growth | -26.8% | -73.6% | 609.4% | 190.5% | 20.4% | |
|
|---|
| Gross Margin | 48.7% | 47.2% | 46.2% | 47.1% | 44.4% | -2.7% |
| EBITDA Margin | 13.4% | 2.7% | 9.2% | 18.6% | 15.4% | -3.2% |
| SG&A, % of revenue | 24.0% | 31.2% | 23.6% | 18.6% | 18.5% | -0.1% |
| Net Income Margin | 3.8% | -0.9% | 8.8% | 17.6% | 12.0% | -5.6% |
| CAPEX, % of revenue | 2.9% | 1.8% | 2.5% | 0.9% | 9.5% | 8.6% |
|
|---|
| ROIC | 17.6% | 2.0% | 12.0% | 14.9% | 10.2% | -4.8% |
| ROE | | | 14.3% | 25.3% | 15.8% | -9.5% |
| Net Debt/EBITDA | -1.5x | -13.0x | -2.6x | -2.0x | -0.9x | 1.1x |
ACM Research, Inc. ($ACMR) key quoterly financial indicators
| mln. $ | 20Q1 | 20Q2 | 20Q3 | 20Q4 | | YoY change |
|---|
P&L
|
|---|
| Revenue | 24 | 39 | 48 | 46 | | 18.9% | 34.6% | 42.6% | 85.2% |
| EBITDA | 2 | 8 | 8 | 6 | | -37.2% | 55.1% | 9.8% | 38.4% |
| Net Income | 2 | -0 | 9 | 9 | | -8.2% | -101.9% | -1.8% | 116.3% |
Balance Sheet
|
|---|
| Cash | 52 | 86 | 92 | 72 | | 91.0% | 213.3% | 95.1% | 23.2% |
| Short Term Debt | 5 | 27 | 30 | 29 | | -63.0% | 64.6% | 74.6% | 93.0% |
| Long Term Debt | 2 | 3 | 3 | 21 | | -36.4% | 4.0% | 11.4% | 723.8% |
Ratios
|
|---|
| Gross Margin | 42.0% | 49.6% | 42.7% | 43.2% | | -1.1% | 4.3% | -6.0% | -7.4% |
| EBITDA Margin | 7.4% | 20.3% | 17.3% | 13.4% | | -6.6% | 2.7% | -5.2% | -4.5% |
| Net Income Margin | 7.0% | -0.2% | 18.1% | 18.7% | | -2.1% | -15.1% | -8.2% | 2.7% |
Peers in Semiconductor Equipment
Below we provide ACM Research, Inc. benchmarking against other companies in Semiconductor Equipment industry for the last 5 years. We show data for the top-5 companies by key financial metric together with the median value for all the companies in the industry.
Top companies by Revenue growth, %
| Top 5 | FY2016 | FY2017 | FY2018 | FY2019 | FY2020 |
|---|
| Xperi Corporation ($XPER) | - | 44.0% | 8.7% | -31.0% | 218.5% |
| DAQO New Energy Corp. ($DQ) | - | 41.1% | -6.7% | 16.0% | 93.0% |
| Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. ($AEIS) | - | 38.7% | 7.1% | 9.7% | 79.5% |
| Ichor Holdings ($ICHR) | - | 61.7% | 25.6% | -24.6% | 47.3% |
| Axcelis Technologies, Inc. ($ACLS) | - | 53.8% | 7.8% | -22.5% | 38.4% |
| |
|---|
| Median (27 companies) | 5.0% | 24.2% | 14.0% | -2.8% | 16.3% |
|---|
| ACM Research, Inc. ($ACMR) | - | 33.4% | 104.5% | 44.1% | 45.7% |
Top companies by Gross margin, %
| Top 5 | FY2016 | FY2017 | FY2018 | FY2019 | FY2020 |
|---|
| Xperi Corporation ($XPER) | 99.8% | 98.3% | 96.7% | 97.0% | 91.2% |
| PDF Solutions, Inc. ($PDFS) | 58.6% | 53.4% | 50.1% | 60.9% | 58.2% |
| Teradyne, Inc. ($TER) | 54.7% | 57.2% | 58.1% | 58.4% | 57.2% |
| Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. ($NVMI) | 45.9% | 59.1% | 57.8% | 54.2% | 56.8% |
| Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. ($KLIC) | 45.7% | 47.2% | 46.1% | 47.1% | 47.8% |
| |
|---|
| Median (27 companies) | 37.3% | 43.2% | 40.2% | 40.3% | 42.4% |
|---|
| ACM Research, Inc. ($ACMR) | 48.7% | 47.2% | 46.2% | 47.1% | 44.4% |
Top companies by EBITDA margin, %
| Top 5 | FY2016 | FY2017 | FY2018 | FY2019 | FY2020 |
|---|
| Xperi Corporation ($XPER) | 47.6% | 23.4% | 34.3% | 16.4% | 40.8% |
| DAQO New Energy Corp. ($DQ) | 43.3% | 49.1% | 36.1% | 27.1% | 38.0% |
| Teradyne, Inc. ($TER) | 3.4% | 29.6% | 27.9% | 30.3% | 33.8% |
| Cabot Microelectronics Corporation ($CCMP) | 23.4% | 27.2% | 31.5% | 20.1% | 31.6% |
| Entegris, Inc. ($ENTG) | 21.7% | 25.6% | 27.1% | 24.7% | 29.3% |
| |
|---|
| Median (25 companies) | 11.4% | 16.2% | 16.6% | 11.9% | 15.9% |
|---|
| ACM Research, Inc. ($ACMR) | 13.4% | 2.7% | 9.2% | 18.6% | 15.4% |
Top companies by CAPEX/Revenue, %
| Top 5 | FY2016 | FY2017 | FY2018 | FY2019 | FY2020 |
|---|
| DAQO New Energy Corp. ($DQ) | 29.5% | 19.8% | 47.4% | 79.7% | 17.5% |
| Photronics, Inc. ($PLAB) | 10.4% | 20.4% | 17.3% | 32.4% | 11.6% |
| Cabot Microelectronics Corporation ($CCMP) | 4.1% | 4.2% | 3.6% | 5.4% | 11.3% |
| Amkor Technology, Inc. ($AMKR) | 16.5% | 13.1% | 12.7% | 11.7% | 10.9% |
| SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. ($SEDG) | 4.3% | 3.5% | 4.1% | 5.1% | 8.7% |
| |
|---|
| Median (24 companies) | 2.2% | 3.2% | 3.0% | 3.4% | 3.3% |
|---|
| ACM Research, Inc. ($ACMR) | 2.9% | 1.8% | 2.5% | 0.9% | 9.5% |
Top companies by ROIC, %
| Top 5 | FY2016 | FY2017 | FY2018 | FY2019 | FY2020 |
|---|
| Teradyne, Inc. ($TER) | -2.9% | 23.8% | 22.6% | 29.2% | 40.3% |
| DAQO New Energy Corp. ($DQ) | 12.7% | 23.2% | 12.2% | 5.6% | 18.5% |
| Entegris, Inc. ($ENTG) | 10.3% | 14.7% | 15.4% | 11.3% | 16.4% |
| Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. ($AEIS) | 41.2% | 45.7% | 31.3% | 6.9% | 15.5% |
| Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. ($UCTT) | 7.8% | 27.5% | 10.5% | 4.1% | 14.8% |
| |
|---|
| Median (27 companies) | 6.9% | 13.1% | 11.3% | 5.5% | 10.5% |
|---|
| ACM Research, Inc. ($ACMR) | 17.6% | 2.0% | 12.0% | 14.9% | 10.2% |
Top companies by Net Debt / EBITDA
| Top 5 | FY2016 | FY2017 | FY2018 | FY2019 | FY2020 |
|---|
| Veeco Instruments Inc. ($VECO) | - | - | - | 577.2x | 3.4x |
| Cohu, Inc. ($COHU) | -6.0x | -2.7x | - | 10.1x | 2.9x |
| Xperi Corporation ($XPER) | 4.2x | 5.0x | 2.6x | 6.1x | 2.1x |
| Cabot Microelectronics Corporation ($CCMP) | -1.3x | -1.8x | -1.9x | 3.6x | 2.0x |
| Entegris, Inc. ($ENTG) | 0.7x | 0.1x | 1.1x | 1.6x | 1.0x |
| |
|---|
| Median (23 companies) | -1.2x | -0.7x | -1.0x | -0.4x | -0.3x |
|---|
| ACM Research, Inc. ($ACMR) | -1.5x | -13.0x | -2.6x | -2.0x | -0.9x |
