Coherent (COHR)

A stock idea that might be new to the board that I plan to start taking a decent look at: Coherent (ticker: COHR). I know they are involved with lasers in some fashion, but a bit different than IPG Photonics. They had a big run-up last year and maybe in 2016 too, but have recently fallen from over $300 down to about $150-something. Not dug too deeply yet, but this drop could potentially be overdone…or maybe it is decently warranted. Either way, seems like a possible new idea for the board here if anyone else wants to start doing any parallel research, or chime in with other already-present knowledge.
volfan84 (No COHR position)

Hi Volfan, I thought your idea might be lost on that other thread, so I thought I’d re-post it and maybe find some people who are familiar with the stock.
Saul

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I’ve minimally followed Coherent. As another poster in another thread mentioned, the stock price has been tracking OLED and there is some market scare in that sector, hence the large drop in the stock.

Coherent seems to have their business booked about one year out and they are capacity constrained as well. This stock would be a bit of a divergence to the type of stock discussed here. At this point, it appears to be a value play.

The company makes lasers for making other items - electronics, medical equipment, metal cutting, etc…

They apparently have a very strong IP in the sector. Company was founded in the 1960s if I recall.

From my minimal take, they appear to be well run. Coherent bought a competitor Rofin-Sonar (IIRC). YOu’ll see a big tick up in revenue looking back and that was due to the acquisition. They are paying down the debt taken on for that purchase very quickly.

Anyway, well run, good IP, solid business, but capacity constrained and sympathetically falling on OLED concerns.

That is about all I know.

A.J.

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Cohr has a lot of coverage in Market Pass for anyone with premium memberships. The latest rumbling indicate a PEG of about 1 based on a trailing PE of 17 and projected growth of 17%.

Its lasers are instrumental in OLED manufacture and performance for high end Iphones, projected to have accelerating growth in 2019 and 2020.

I’m always a little nervous about Iphone vendors, for some vendors those deals have ended with an unceremonious dump.

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