Photronics Q4 FY2025 Earnings Call - High-End IC Revenue Drives Record Performance Amid Strategic U.S. and Korea Expansion

Conference Operator: For today, and thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Photronics fourth quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on the listen-only mode. After the speaker’s presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please note that today’s conference is being recorded. I will now hand the conference over to your speaker host, Ted Moreau, head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Ted Moreau, Head of Investor Relations, Photronics: Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our review of Photronics’ fiscal fourth quarter 2025 financial results. Joining me this morning are George Macricostas, Chairman and CEO, Eric Rivera, CFO, Frank Lee, head of our Asia operations, and Chris Progler, CTO. The press release we issued earlier this morning, together with the presentation material that accompanies our remarks, is available on the investor relations section of our website. This call will include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause Photronics’ results to differ materially from management’s current expectations. We encourage you to review the notice regarding forward-looking statements contained both in today’s earnings release as well as our most recent SEC filings. During the quarter, we will be participating in the New York Summit next week and the Needham Growth Conference in January. I will now turn the call over to George.

George Macricostas, Chairman and CEO, Photronics: Thank you, Ted, and good morning, everyone. We delivered strong financial results with sales of $216 million, exceeding expectations and increasing 3% sequentially. The major positive in the quarter was record high-end IC revenue, led by the U.S. and Asia. Non-GAAP diluted EPS also surpassed guidance, coming in at $0.60 per share. During the quarter, we recognized a tax valuation allowance reversal, reflecting an improvement in our U.S. execution and outlook, which Eric will elaborate on. As we look to 2026, we will continue to leverage our operational strengths and geographic footprint, spanning 11 production facilities, to continue to deliver high-quality photomasks. As previously communicated, we are currently executing strategic geographic expansions at existing facilities, reinforcing our position as a leading merchant provider of photomasks. These initiatives are expected to enhance the revenue contribution from these facilities, broadening and further diversifying our geographic revenue mix.

Our investments are aligned with two industry trends. First, advanced node migration. Progression to more advanced nodes requires more mask layers per IC device and finer resolution mask features, driving increased mask demand and higher mask set ASPs. Our investments will increase our exposure to higher-end nodes in the U.S. and in Korea. Second, regionalization. Semiconductor manufacturing continues to diversify globally, including meaningful reshoring of production in the U.S. We are a market leader in the U.S. and will pursue numerous higher-end opportunities through our U.S. investment plans. More specifically, a year ago, we announced our capacity expansion and capability extension at our Allen, Texas facility. We expect to begin tool installation in the coming months with customer qualifications in the spring timeframe and initial revenue later in 2026. In Korea, our cleanroom expansion is underway, with equipment installation beginning in 2026.

Customer qualifications for 8 nanometer are expected through fiscal 2027, with revenue contribution beginning in 2028. Additional node migrations are expected as market demands develop. Together, these initiatives will diversify our geographic revenue mix and increase our exposure to leading-edge chip designs. During the quarter, we achieved several positive technical and commercial developments. To highlight a few: one, we are recognizing more outsourced opportunities from captive mask makers, including leading-edge DRAM and logic nodes. Two, in advanced IC packaging, we saw increased demand for our larger format masks that support AI-driven chip packaging applications. Three, we completed shipments of masks fabricated with our newest generation DRAM node mask process, co-developed with a key memory customer. Four, demand tied to edge AI applications continues to rise across Asia, highlighting our exposure to this critical segment.

Finally, our advanced multi-beam mask writer we installed in the U.S. earlier in 2025 is now in full production, with over 20 customers qualified, including multiple EUV users. Our technology roadmap continues to advance through joint development with customers, collaborations with consortia such as IMEC, and partnerships with critical suppliers. I will now review market conditions heading into fiscal 2026 before turning the call over to Eric. The high-end of the market remains strong, supported by sustained investment in hyperscale data centers for AI rollouts. This momentum continues to drive demand for the highest-end photomasks. Many of our high-end customers are providing positive forecasts that reinforce favorable node migration trends and global manufacturing regionalization. While the high-end of the market remains robust, the mainstream IC market remains soft, though appears to be stabilized. Returning to our quarterly results, IC revenue was $157 million.

We achieved a quarterly record in high-end IC, representing 42% of IC revenue, thanks to a strong technology portfolio and exceptional execution. Demand in the U.S. has been particularly strong, validating our expansion initiatives designed to bring additional advanced production capacity to the market. As a reminder, we are the only U.S.-headquartered company that can produce trusted masks, and our Boise facility is the only commercial high-end U.S. trusted mask facility. In flat panel display, revenue of $58 million declined sequentially, reflecting order timing. Demand softened later in the quarter and into the early days of Q1, but has since rebounded. FPD mask demand is expected to remain strong throughout Q1. Earlier in 2025, we shipped our first two G8.6 AMOLED orders and anticipate additional G8.6 demand in fiscal Q1 as adoption of this technology expands in consumer and enterprise high-performance display segments.

I will now turn the call over to Eric to review our fourth quarter results and provide first-quarter guidance.

Chris Progler, CTO, Photronics: Thank you, George. Good morning, everyone. Fourth quarter revenue exceeded expectations at $216 million, increasing 3% sequentially, though declining 3% year over year. IC revenue of $157 million declined 4% year over year. However, we experienced a meaningful mix shift towards high-end shipments, which reached record levels in both absolute dollars and as a percentage of total IC revenue at 42%. High-end IC strength reflects strong order patterns globally, including in the U.S., which now represent 20% of total revenue, where reshoring efforts continue to create a favorable demand environment. Meanwhile, our mainstream IC revenue declined 12% year over year due to several factors. The declines are broad-based geographically because of market conditions. However, the mainstream IC decline deepened by recent geopolitical impacts across mainstream customer segments, primarily in China. Additionally, we strategically redirected mainstream capacity, including capabilities obtained from end-of-life tool replacements, towards higher-end opportunities.

Turning to FPD, fiscal Q4 revenue of $58 million declined 1% year over year due to timing of order patterns. As we look to fiscal Q1, the temporary FPD slowdown that emerged later in Q4 persisted through much of November but has since abated with recovering order levels. Gross margin improved to 35%, exceeding expectations driven by a favorable product mix. Operating margin of 24% also exceeded our guidance range. Diluted GAAP EPS attributable to Photronics shareholders was $1.07 per share. We experienced a favorable $16.8 million benefit related to the reversal of historical U.S. tax loss valuation allowance. We had recorded this tax valuation allowance as the benefit was previously deemed unrealizable. Given the improved performance and outlook of our U.S. business, U.S. GAAP required a reversal of this tax loss allowance, resulting in the positive $16.8 million result to GAAP net income.

Excluding foreign exchange impacts and a deferred tax valuation allowance reversal, non-GAAP diluted EPS was $0.60 per share. Our earnings performance reflects a greater contribution from our U.S. operations. During the quarter, we generated $88 million in operating cash flow, equating to 41% of revenue. CapEx was $68 million, bringing full-year CapEx to $188 million. As discussed throughout the year, we have entered a period of elevated capital investments to drive future organic growth. Exemplifying this commitment, our initiatives in the U.S. and Korea will further strengthen our ability to capitalize growth trends, including increased captive outsourcing, high-end node migrations, and geographic supply chain diversity. For fiscal 2026, total CapEx includes typical annual spending, incremental end-of-life tool upgrades, and special project investments in the U.S. and Korea. Notably, end-of-life tool upgrades bring new capabilities, enhance production efficiency, and allow us to target higher value opportunities.

We expect fiscal 2026 CapEx to total approximately $330 million. All investments have been carefully vetted to meet our return thresholds and align with major industry demand drivers. Total cash and short-term investments increased $12 million sequentially to $588 million, which includes $422 million of cash held in our joint ventures. Our capital allocation strategy includes three priorities: reinvesting for organic growth, pursuing strategic opportunities, and returning cash to shareholders. After spending $97 million in fiscal 2025, we will remain opportunistic in repurchasing the remaining $28 million under our stock authorization. Before providing guidance, I’d like to remind you that demand for our products is inherently variable. Visibility is limited, with typical backlog of only one to three weeks. Additionally, high-end mask sets carry significantly higher ASPs, meaning even a small number of orders can materially influence revenue and earnings.

Demand is also affected by IC and display design activity, and secondarily, by wafer and panel capacity dynamics. Given current market conditions and the industry outlook George discussed, we expect fiscal Q1 revenue to be in the range of $217 and $225 million. Based on those revenue expectations and our operating model, we estimate fiscal Q1 operating margin between 23 and 25%, and non-GAAP diluted EPS between $0.51 and $0.59 per share. I will now turn the call over to the operator for your questions.

Conference Operator: Thank you, Emily. Thank you, Element. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Please stand by for our first question, and our first question coming from the line of Tom Diffely with D.A. Davidson. You’ll let us know.

Hi, good morning. This is Linda on for Tom Diffely. Thank you for letting us ask questions. My first question is on the market share. Not that your largest competitor, just one public. What is your relative size and/or trends in share? Any color there will be very helpful.

Eric Rivera, CFO, Photronics: Could you repeat the question? I’m sorry.

Oh, can you hear me now?

Yes, we can, but we didn’t hear the question clearly enough.

My first question was on market share. With your largest competitor being public now, I was wondering how you’re viewing your relative size and trends in the market share versus your competitor.

So our market share. Thank you, Linda. This is Eric. So we see the market share being as we had perceived in the past. The fact that Texan now is public helps us get a little bit more detail, but we see our market share being exactly what we thought before. In IC, they have a little bit more. They have more market share than we do, for sure. When you consider our FPD business that they don’t participate in, we’re about the same size when you combine them.

So same size on FPD and different elsewhere?

Texan doesn’t participate in FPD. Photronics does. Texan has a larger market share than Photronics does.

Frank Lee, Head of Asia Operations, Photronics: In IC.

Eric Rivera, CFO, Photronics: In IC. However, when you consider our FPD business, we’re around the same size.

Okay. Got it. And then looking at the overall competitive environment, what is your view on the overall health of the environment? Yeah, any comment there would be helpful.

Frank Lee, Head of Asia Operations, Photronics: Yes. We are seeing a lot of node migration, and especially in the States. In the past, we have our major operating facilities in Asia, but right now, with the reshoring of semiconductor industry in the United States, our Boise site, which has the high-end capability, we are the only high-end merchant mask supplier in the country, and with all the growing high-end demand in the country, we believe we are on the right track to capture more high-end shares, so this also answers your first question, that our market share with the growing U.S. demand, especially in the high-end and trusted product, we believe our market share will continue to increase.

Eric Rivera, CFO, Photronics: And it’ll be supported by our investments in our Allen facility as well, which is supporting the reshoring efforts as well.

Oh, thank you. That makes sense. And then I also wanted to touch on the mainstream business. You said that there’s continued softness there, but you’re seeing it stabilizing. Just curious if you’re seeing any kind, basically what you’re seeing on the supply and demand side of things, and, yeah, how that has impacted margins and maybe how that is impacting your capital spend for next year?

Frank Lee, Head of Asia Operations, Photronics: Our mainstream market we are referring to, mainly our mainstream business in China. As most people are aware that in China, due to the geopolitical issue, they do have some native in China policy. So there are quite a few new local mask houses in China. However, Photronics, as a market and technology leader in China, we try to differentiate ourselves from our local competitors. We are focusing more on our anchor key customers. We build a relationship with these key customers with better product quality, support, and so on. And also, we utilize our capacity better, mainly for the more higher value product mix. So I think there are some competition in the mainstream, especially the low end of the mainstream. But with our capability and also with our tool capacity and so on, we are moving ourselves to higher value product mix.

Great. Thank you for your time this morning.

Eric Rivera, CFO, Photronics: Thank you, Linda.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Christian Schwab with Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Fantastic order. So just to follow up on the mainstream, is it fair to say that the new market entrance in China on the, I guess, higher, the less complicated nodes, is where you’re seeing, I would assume, increased pricing competition? And so as we think about that business and your shift to higher mix, should we think about that business potentially being under any gross margin pressure, or should we assume we’re going to focus where quality and support and better products stand out and the growth rate there could be a little muted? I guess I’m trying to kind of put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

Frank Lee, Head of Asia Operations, Photronics: Okay. As I reported in China, right now, there are very strong demand for our high-end product, especially in the 22- and 28-nanometer technology. So for this technology, there are many, many layers in one set of device. So our capacity in our China facility, we are using most of the capacities for the high-end, not necessarily for the critical layers, but also for the semi and non-critical layers. So those critical and those non-critical and semi-critical layers, actually, they have a much better ASP than the so-called typical mainstream. So in summary, our capacity needs to be optimized, and so higher value for higher gross margin and profit margin is the way we are doing business and the way we are working on the market.

Great. That’s clear. Thank you for that. And as G8.6 adoption and flat panel display eventually begins to broaden out into more mainstream applications, your ASPs there are, I believe they are anyway, materially higher given the layer count. When would you expect that to begin to be a meaningful percentage of that business? Is that something that happens in 2026, fiscal year 2026, or is that something that’s in 2027 and beyond?

Eric Rivera, CFO, Photronics: Yeah. Hi, this is Chris. Yeah. So the G8.6 is at the early stage of production ramp. There’s only a few fabs that are running that, but we’re seeing additional fabs come online, actually in multiple regions for G8.6 display. The application space is, just as you said, it’s larger format OLED displays and IT, automotive, medical applications. So the application space is fairly broad. So we do expect that to be a strong opportunity for us because we have a leadership position there. As far as when it will have material impact on revenues and things like that, we don’t really want to talk about that here. But I think 2026, you’ll see gradual increases in the component of our display revenue driven by G8.6. I think that’s all we probably would say at the moment.

Okay. That’s great. And then as we’re adding new capacity and geographical expansion and replacing end-of-life tools, I know that brings new capabilities and probably a different pricing structure. Is there any puts or takes to gross margin over a multi-year basis given those significant investments that we should be thinking about?

Oh, Christian, Eric here, so as we invest in our tools, we do so understanding the market and where we see growth being, and basically, we do expect to have increased revenue and, as a result, contributions to gross margin. Our CapEx also includes purchases of end-of-life tools, which provide also increased capabilities, so we do expect to see increased revenue, increased depreciation as well associated with it. We expect our gross margins to continue at the same rate and perhaps grow as we make these investments.

Fantastic.

This is George. It’s no different than the past. I mean, we’ve always had end-of-life tools in the past and replacing them, etc. I mean, the new tools have better throughput, better capabilities, etc. So it should not be anything material changes as far as the depreciation that’s associated with the new tools.

Great. Fantastic. And then have you guys, oh, my last question here. Sorry for asking so many. As we ramp up the Allen, Texas facility, can you give us an idea of revenue potential? I don’t need to know exactly where you could get capacity. I could figure it out. But what should we assume the revenue capabilities of additional U.S. capacity over a multi-year timeframe could add to the company? Is that fair?

I understand the question, Christian. So let me address the question into what I can, I don’t want to go to a level of granularity where we’re disclosing how much revenue we’re going to have by site. So what I can say is that as a result of these investments, we’re going to go into sort of the mid-range nodes or the higher end of the mainstream, depending on how we define that, right? And we’re going to have more capabilities that is going to have incremental revenue and profitability to Photronics in the U.S. We expect gross margins to improve. We expect revenue to start on these investments towards the second half of the fiscal year 2026. And we expect those to continue on to 2027 when we’re fully ramped.

Frank Lee, Head of Asia Operations, Photronics: And one other point, Christian, we might make this kind of a knock-on effect to this Allen project in that it’ll free up more capacity in our Boise site, which is our most leading-edge facility, because some of those mid-range masks we run there. So as Allen ramps, its revenue, of course, will go up, but the Boise will have more capacity to deploy for higher-end applications. So it’s really a combination net benefit of both sites as far as the opportunity.

Great. Great. Well, let me sneak one more question in. Given the significant reshoring activities that are potentially going to be going on on a multi-year basis here in the United States, there are certain manufacturers who are going to be adding additional capacity who source photomasks from outside of the United States, which in some applications, it may seem to me that they might be cost-prohibitive to get all the way over here. Do you have any idea or aspirations that you’re willing to share with us what you think the opportunity for captive guys going to the merchant market over a multi-year timeframe, or am I just stating the obvious because we’re adding capacity everywhere, but if there’s any clarity on the movement from captive to merchant that you’re anticipating other than just semiconductor unit growth, any clarity there would be helpful, I think.

Eric Rivera, CFO, Photronics: So to be clear, is your question, do we expect the captives to be entering the merchant market effectively competing with us, or did I misunderstand that?

No. I’m saying giving up market share, looking to merchant market suppliers versus doing it internally. Do you think that that is a trend that could come to the marketplace, in particular in the U.S. geography?

Yeah. I was going to say, I mean, unless it’s a capability issue that they can’t get it here, I mean, typically the cycle time is a big issue. They would want to have a more locally sourced, for cycle time reasons, a more locally sourced mask shop. So I think we have the local advantage. I think the issue could be, if there was one, would be under capabilities. But I’ll let some of the other folks from the team here chime in.

Frank Lee, Head of Asia Operations, Photronics: I mean, I think we can broadly answer the question that we’ve seen over the last year, maybe a little longer, the tendency of the captives overall as a group to look at more outsourcing opportunities. And that’s not just in the U.S. That’s in other regions as well. So generally, we’re seeing an increase in interest and desire for the captives to outsource. This could be less critical layers of very advanced sets. It could be memory products that historically were done internally. But let’s say broadly, there’s more outsourcing opportunity. Particularly related to Photronics, we’re well positioned in regions that have some of the largest captives and also some of the largest fabs. So we do expect to capitalize on that increased outsourcing trend of captives. I think beyond that, we won’t be more specific at this time. But we do see it as an opportunity.

Yeah. That’s fantastic. That was extremely helpful. Go ahead. I’m sorry.

Eric Rivera, CFO, Photronics: I’ll just add something quickly there. I guess stating the obvious, right? The regionalization trends, essentially, there’ll be more fabs making more wafers. They’ll need more photomasks. So the regionalization trend is only positive for merchant photomask manufacturers like Photronics.

Yep. 100%. Get it. No other questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Christian. Appreciate the questions.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Gauchi Surhan with Single Research. Johannes Malven.

Thank you. Good morning, guys. Can you hear me?

Eric Rivera, CFO, Photronics: Yes, we can, Gauchi. Good morning.

Good morning. Just on that, I’m glad you brought up that outsourcing issue. How do you guys think about the outsourcing increase in sales? How do you think about pricing and margins on those layers relative to traditional mainstream IC?

High-end has higher ASPs. Higher ASPs are good. They generally have a higher margin with them. So any outsourcing that comes out of the captives would generally be on the high-end areas. And generally speaking, the captives, when they’re outsourcing, at least my experience is they pay. I mean, I don’t want to say a huge premium, but they’re definitely not bottom fishing for what the merchants can give them. Typically, they’re outsourcing and they need it, and they’re paying a fair price. So I don’t see them being overly cost-conscious, if I’m making sense.

Gotcha. Thank you. The first question was, you talked a few quarters about how the customers were in holding patterns because of tariffs, geopolitics. Setting aside Q1, are you seeing any change in the mix of conversation? You’re having more long-term planning discussions that would tell you about the sentiment that is quietly improving under the surface?

Okay, so overall, with respect to the export restrictions, I think that’s what you’re referring to, or the tariffs. I guess the tariffs are both of them, so we’re seeing a little bit more easing of that. I think, as you said, customers have understood the landscape, and as a result, they’re able to plan better and, as such, order. Now, that is true for most areas. Perhaps in China, maybe it still remains the same, the issues that you’ve just described, but for the rest of the world, I think customers have a good plan of where they’re going to do their orders, and as a result, we’re there to benefit from that. Does anybody want to add?

Frank Lee, Head of Asia Operations, Photronics: I guess we can also say the two projects we’ve announced, the one in the U.S. and the one in Korea, were based on both short and longer-term conversations with customers on their future demands and the opportunities. So those projects came out of, I would say, a more robust longer-term opportunity dialogue with key customers. So we are seeing an increase in that. And we’re acting on it appropriately by making the right investments in these projects.

Yeah. Makes sense. And the high-end IC grew nicely in Q4. How concentrated is that growth towards a handful of programs or customers? And what would you see in the pipeline that gives you confidence that this becomes a broader, more diversified high-end run rate for the rest of fiscal 2026?

This is Chris. I can make a few comments. I think the high-end growth were basically from our existing core customer base. There were a few new customers, mostly our core customer base that expanded production and capacity as well, so that was memory customers, foundry logic probably being the strongest, and recovery in Asia, so it’s broad-based. It’s a broad product mix coming out of foundry and memory, and it’s mostly our existing customer base, but more robust order patterns that match up to their improving demand cycles as well, so we think it’s sustainable. It’s consistent with the market generally improving, and we’re well positioned with some of the stronger IC players, so we do think it’s sustainable.

Eric Rivera, CFO, Photronics: And if anything, we see more opportunities there in the high-end for sure.

Gotcha. Thank you. And I’ll just make this my last question. On Korea specifically, with the capability extension and an increased exposure to the leading-edge chips, how does the commercial model in Korea compare to U.S.? Are the customers inclined to sign longer-term agreements, or is it a more transactional kind of quarter-to-quarter work?

Frank Lee, Head of Asia Operations, Photronics: We don’t want to be very specific on this one. But as Chris just mentioned, our customer, especially the Advanced Logic Foundry customer, they continue their outsourcing policy, not necessarily for a mature node, but going to a high-end and more higher-end. So I think even there are no long-term agreements, but the trend is continuing. So we do have a lot of conversation and communication with the customer about their roadmap and their outsourcing demand. And that’s one of the reasons we are doing the Korea-side capacity and capability expansion.

Thank you, guys. I’ll take the rest offline.

Eric Rivera, CFO, Photronics: Thank you, Gauchi.

Conference Operator: Thank you. And I’m showing there are no further questions in the queue. I will now turn the call back over to Ted for any closing comments.

Ted Moreau, Head of Investor Relations, Photronics: Thank you for joining us today. We really appreciate your interest in Photronics. Look forward to catching up with everyone throughout the quarter. Have a great day.

Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.