FREMONT, Calif., Jan. 10, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR), a worldwide supplier of semiconductor test and burn-in equipment, today announced financial results for its second quarter of fiscal 2019 ended November 30, 2018.

Fiscal Second Quarter Financial Results:

• Net sales were $5.9 million, compared to $7.9 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2018.
• GAAP net loss was $629,000, or $0.03 per diluted share, compared to GAAP net income of $60,000, or $0.00 per diluted share, in the second quarter of fiscal 2018.
• Non-GAAP net loss, which excludes the impact of stock-based compensation expense, was $405,000, or $0.02 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $424,000, or $0.02 per diluted share, in the second quarter of fiscal 2018.
• Backlog as of November 30, 2018 was $4.3 million.

Fiscal First Six Months Financial Results:

• Net sales were $10.7 million, compared to $14.9 million in the first six months of fiscal 2018.
• GAAP net loss was $2.1 million, or $0.10 per diluted share, compared to GAAP net income of $70,000, or $0.00 per diluted share, in the first six months of fiscal 2018.
• Non-GAAP net loss was $1.7 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $650,000, or $0.03 per diluted share, in the first six months of fiscal 2018.

An explanation of the use of non-GAAP financial information and a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the accompanying tables.

Second Quarter and Recent Business Highlights:

• Received an order for and shipped a follow-on FOX-XP^TM Multi-Wafer Test and Burn-in System and WaferPak^TM Aligner to the company’s lead customer for wafer level test and burn-in of silicon photonics devices.
• Shipped follow-on ABTS^TM Test and Burn-in System to a wireless communications chipset company for use in high volume production burn-in of automotive devices.
• Announced today the addition of a new product in Aehr Test’s FOX-P^TM platform, the FOX-NP^TM system, which increases the market opportunity for the company’s FOX^TM systems and contactors with a low cost, small footprint entry-level system that provides a configuration for initial product development, production qualification and New Production Introduction (NPI).
• Received a commitment and expect an order imminently from a new customer to use Aehr Test’s FOX-P Platform for test and burn-in of silicon photonics devices. This additional production test and burn-in customer plans to utilize Aehr Test’s new FOX-NP system to begin their production ramp and then transition to high volume production test and burn-in of 100% of their silicon photonics devices using Aehr Test’s FOX-XP systems.
• Appointed new Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing to oversee all aspects of the Company’s customer facing sales, marketing and support team, including direct sales, distributors and representatives in Asia and Europe, and its subsidiaries in Japan and Germany.

Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented:

“While our revenue in the second quarter was lower on a year-over-year basis, it was in line with the expectations that we discussed in last quarter’s call for a softer first half of the fiscal year, with many of our customers’ capacity ramps expected in the second half of our fiscal year. We continue to feel positive about the second half, but there are in fact both positive and negative events that impact our expectations for the fiscal second half and full year.

“Our lead customer for our FOX-XP system for production wafer level burn-in of silicon photonics devices continues to drive increased business for us. This customer, who is one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers, has a very strong forecast for their capacity ramp, which will consume the system capacity they have ordered to date. We continue to expect orders for a significant number of our WaferPak Contactors by the end of this fiscal year to populate their FOX-XP systems, as well as orders for additional FOX-XP systems and WaferPak Contactors throughout calendar year 2019 and beyond.

“We are pleased to announce that just this week we received a commitment from a new customer to use our FOX-P Platform for test and burn-in of silicon photonics devices. This additional production customer will utilize our new FOX-NP system to begin their production ramp and then transition to high volume production test and burn-in of 100% of their silicon photonics devices using our FOX-XP systems, which have the capacity to test and burn-in over 4,600 singulated die devices in parallel. We are expecting imminent placement of an order by this customer for their initial design verification, qualification and production needs.

“The FOX-NP system is a new product within Aehr Test’s FOX-P family that offers a lower cost entry-level system to provide a configuration and price point for companies to do initial production qualification and new product introduction, enabling an easier transition to the FOX-XP for full production test. This new FOX-NP system is 100% compatible with the FOX-XP system and is configurable with up to two blades per system compared to up to 18 blades in the FOX-XP system.

“As we had discussed last quarter, many of our customers had substantial forecasts for bookings and shipments that we forecasted by the end of our fiscal year. We have seen push outs of orders for capacity increases from our installed base due to customer device delays that do not appear to be related to macro industry trends. We also believe some of our customers have taken a cautious stance which has impacted the timing of their orders to Aehr due to general market concerns and trade uncertainties between the US and China, as well as slow-downs in the mobile space that have been widely reported. Specifically, we are seeing orders that are delayed such that we will no longer be able to ship them within this current fiscal third quarter and/or our fiscal year.

“As a result of the current customer product delays and market conditions, as well as delays in expected orders, we are lowering our revenue guidance for fiscal 2019 from a range of $30 million to $35 million to a new range of $20 million to $25 million. However, we expect to see an improvement in bookings in our second half, with an increase in backlog heading into our fiscal 2020, which begins June 1, 2019.

“We believe that the long-term fundamentals for Aehr Test Systems have not changed. We continue to see an increase in semiconductor content in every part of life as well as an increased need for reliability, security, safety, and confidence in those semiconductors and electronic products. We also see the macro trend of semiconductor devices with heterogeneous integration or stacked die increasing the need for reliability and burn-in of devices before they are integrated or stacked into multi-die packages. Aehr Test’s unique products allow our customers to test and burn-in their devices with the 100% confidence and traceability which are needed to address the safety, security, and confidence for mission critical applications. We feel we are very well positioned to capitalize on these long-term market trends.”

Management Conference Call and Webcast
Aehr Test Systems will host a conference call and webcast today at 5:00 p.m. Eastern (2:00 p.m. PT) to discuss its second quarter fiscal 2019 operating results. To access the call dial 800-458-4121 (+1 323-794-2093 outside the United States) and give the participant pass code 1583827. In addition, a live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available over the Internet at www.aehr.com in the Investor Relations section. A replay of the conference call will also be available via telephone beginning approximately two hours after conclusion of the call through 8:00 p.m. ET on January 10, 2019. To access the replay dial-in information, please click here.

About Aehr Test Systems