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Technology Stocks : Cohu, Inc. (COHU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: semi2000 who wrote (1533)	10/17/1999 3:37:00 PM
From: KLINVESTOR	Respond to of 7827

Semi2000, I really like your schedule as it shows the volatility of Cohu's sales, orders and earnings! I think the best news of all in Thursday's earnings releases is that Cohu is still having a significant increase in orders, sales, and backlog. My fear was that they would have a flattening of these indicators given that the published BTB for the industry was flattening in July and August on an average basis for the industry of course the test sector was doing better. Given that the order rate was $76.5 million next quarter sales of about that amount or as much as $80 million could happen. Incredible!!! Cohu has made it clear in their quarterly SEC reports that their margins would be impacted by having introduced new handlers and I don't think we should be totally surprised by the slightly lower margins than of a couple of years ago. If the margins begin to widen again and sales continue to grow like they have look out! The Needham target of $35 per share is encouraging and with growth like we are seeing that might even be conservative. The Cohu story is pretty simple: dominant domestic supplier of test handling equipment, tremendous balance sheet with no debt and lots of cash, solid management in an industry with many marginal companies that are likely to crash and burn, and finally the overall semi-equip sector is in the beginning of a major sales rebound that should go on for a number of years. Patience and good luck! Hoping for $35 if not $50 per share over the next 12 months.