Rehovot-based Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. (Nasdaq:NVMI; TASE:NVMI), which provides metrology solutions for advanced process control in semiconductor manufacturing, announced yesterday that it had received orders for its Optical CD and XPS solutions from several manufacturers in Asia: in Japan, China, and South Korea. The new orders are expected to contribute over $20 million to Nova's sales revenue in 2017.
Nova's metrology portfolio was selected to be deployed in the most advanced V-NAND sites in Asia Pacific and will be utilized to measure critical dimensions, composition and film thickness in the most critical fabrication steps. Nova said that its solution was chosen because of superior metrology performance on critical applications, which is based on its portfolio of cutting edge Optical and X-Ray hardware tools, enhanced by advanced software modeling capabilities.
"Nova continues to build on its technical leadership, as evidenced by the selection of our Optical CD and Materials metrology solutions by multiple leading 3D-NAND memory manufacturers," said Nova CEO and president Eitan Oppenhaim, "The recent wins and related orders demonstrate the inroads we made into the Memory segment and our constant progress in diversifying our customer base. These wins, which are a result of a selection process, contribute to our continued penetration into the Memory market, and are expected to further enhance our position in this segment through 2017."
Nova's share price responded with a rise of nearly 3% on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange yesterday, and it rose by a similar percentage in New York, making it a 33% rise for the year to date, and bringing its market cap to $364 million.
Nova is one of the smaller players in the inspection equipment market. About 90% of its customers are tier-1, responsible for 80% of annual global investment in equipment, which means fairly stable demand for the company's products. A month ago, Nova reported strong third quarter results, with sales up 9% in comparison with the corresponding quarter of 2015, to a record $44.1 million. Non-GAAP earnings per share were $0.34, up 49% on the corresponding quarter.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 6, 2016
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016