One-glance verdict
Overvalued
$37.83 our estimate vs market $69.90
Wall Street consensus: $117.75 (211.2% higher than our fair-value estimate)
85% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Fundamentals snapshot
ACM Research, Inc.
ACMR · NGM · Technology · Semiconductor Equipment & Materials
Current price
$69.90
52-week range
$26.10 - $127.19
Market cap
$4.87B
Balance sheet
Healthy
15.73x Strong cushion
Net cash $1.09B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
1 Risk
3 rewards · 1 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 15.1% last year.
- Reward Returns 11.6% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 3/10 years.
- Risk Stock trades 92.3% above its 5-year average P/E.
What this company does
ACM Research, Inc.
ACM Research builds and sells the complex machines that other companies use to clean and prepare the foundational materials for making computer chips. It makes most of its money from selling this equipment to chip factories in China. This positions the company as a key supplier within China's technology supply chain (the network of businesses that get a product from creation to the consumer).
How the company got here
ACM Research was founded in California in 1998, initially focused on a technology called stress-free copper polishing. When that didn't find much success, the company pivoted to making equipment that cleans semiconductor wafers—the thin silicon discs used to make computer chips. A key turning point was establishing a subsidiary in Shanghai in 2006, which became its main center for research and manufacturing, positioning the company to serve the rapidly growing Chinese market. The company went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 2017, and its Shanghai subsidiary later listed on Shanghai's STAR Market.
What it actually does
Think of making a computer chip like building a skyscraper with incredibly tiny, complex layers. ACM Research builds the highly specialized machines that clean these layers during the manufacturing process. These machines use unique technologies with names like SAPS and TEBO to remove microscopic dust and residue from the silicon wafers without damaging the delicate circuitry being built on them. This cleaning is critical because even a single speck of dust can ruin a chip, so chipmakers buy ACM's equipment to improve their product yield (the percentage of good chips they produce from each wafer). Beyond cleaning, the company also makes equipment for other steps in the chip-making process, like electroplating, which involves adding thin metal layers.
Single Wafer Cleaning, Tahoe and Semi-Critical Cleaning Equipment
This is the company's largest and most established business, making up the majority of its sales. It creates and sells advanced machines that clean silicon wafers one at a time, which is essential for manufacturing the most advanced and complex chips. Customers are major semiconductor manufacturers who pay for this equipment to ensure the highest possible cleanliness and prevent defects in their products. This segment is the foundation of ACM's business, built on its proprietary cleaning technologies that are especially good at cleaning the tiny, 3D structures on modern chips.
ECP (Electroplating), Furnace and Other Technologies
This is a fast-growing part of ACM's business that is becoming a significant contributor to its revenue. This segment provides equipment for processes other than cleaning, such as electroplating (a process that deposits thin metal layers onto the wafer to create electrical connections) and furnace tools (used for heating wafers to high temperatures for various treatments). Chip manufacturers buy this equipment to perform other critical steps in the complex process of building a chip. This diversification beyond cleaning is a key part of the company's strategy to become a supplier of a wider range of equipment.
Advanced Packaging, Services & Spares
This smaller but growing segment focuses on equipment for advanced packaging, which is the final stage of semiconductor manufacturing where the chip is enclosed in a protective casing. As chips become more powerful, they are often assembled in more complex ways, like stacking them, and this requires specialized tools. Customers, including both chipmakers and specialized packaging companies (known as OSATs), buy this equipment to handle these newer, more advanced packaging techniques. This segment also includes recurring revenue from services and spare parts for all the equipment the company sells.
What management is betting on now
Management is focused on diversifying the company's product lineup beyond its core cleaning tools to become a multi-product supplier to the semiconductor industry. A major priority is expanding its global footprint, particularly in Southeast Asia and the United States, to reduce its heavy reliance on the mainland China market. The company is also investing heavily in developing tools for new, high-growth areas like advanced packaging for AI chips and other emerging technologies. By localizing its supply chain (sourcing more components from within China) and building new facilities like one in Oregon, management aims to strengthen its manufacturing resilience and support its global expansion plans.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$-20.62M
FY2024 Q4
$77.18M
FY2025 Q1
$-11.44M
FY2025 Q2
$-59.63M
FY2025 Q3
$-15.64M
FY2025 Q4
$20.11M
FY2026 Q1
$-51.74M
FY2026 Q2
$-71.47M
Revenue
$292.92M
Net income
$88.98M
Diluted EPS
1.23
Operating cash flow
$-6.36M
Free cash flow
$-71.47M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$231.26M
Net income
$17.31M
Diluted EPS
0.24
Operating cash flow
$-29.54M
Free cash flow
$-51.74M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$244.43M
Net income
$8.05M
Diluted EPS
0.11
Operating cash flow
$33.92M
Free cash flow
$20.11M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$269.16M
Net income
$35.89M
Diluted EPS
0.52
Operating cash flow
$-4.62M
Free cash flow
$-15.64M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$215.37M
Net income
$29.76M
Diluted EPS
0.44
Operating cash flow
$-44.90M
Free cash flow
$-59.63M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$172.35M
Net income
$20.38M
Diluted EPS
0.30
Operating cash flow
$5.28M
Free cash flow
$-11.44M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$223.47M
Net income
$31.08M
Diluted EPS
0.47
Operating cash flow
$88.59M
Free cash flow
$77.18M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$203.98M
Net income
$30.90M
Diluted EPS
0.45
Operating cash flow
$11.91M
Free cash flow
$-20.62M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $37.83 vs current price $69.90
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $117.75 (211.2% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $37.83 a share — about 45.9% below today's price of $69.90, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net cash $1.1B - more cash than debt. Interest coverage 15.7x.
Net debt
$-1.09B
Interest coverage
15.73x
ACM Research, Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 15.7 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
ACMR
BASELINE
ACM Research, Inc.
Total debt $349.32M Interest coverage 15.73x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $1.47B Interest coverage 4.33x -72% vs ACMR Carries about 3.6x less debt cushion than ACMR.
Total debt $29.91M Interest coverage 115.35x +633% vs ACMR Carries about 7.3x more debt cushion than ACMR.
Total debt $69.81M Interest coverage 22.24x +41% vs ACMR Carries about 1.4x more debt cushion than ACMR.
Total debt $38.12M Interest coverage -293.99x -100% vs ACMR This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with ACMR.
Total debt $261.19M Interest coverage 4.88x -69% vs ACMR Carries about 3.2x less debt cushion than ACMR.
What you should know
The case for and against ACMR
3 Rewards
1 Risk
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 15.1% last year.
-
Returns 11.6% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 3/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 92.3% above its 5-year average P/E.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
32.97x
Forward P/E
24.16x
P/B
2.62x
P/S
4.69x
EV/EBITDA
27.09x
PEG ratio
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Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
43.8%
Operating margin
17.0%
Net margin
14.5%
ROE
11.6%
ROA
3.2%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.15x
Current ratio
3.66x
Quick ratio
2.60x
Total debt
$349.32M
Total cash
$1.44B
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$1.04B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
36.5%
EPS TTM
2.12
EPS 5Y CAGR
32.4%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$-6.60M
Free CF TTM
$-66.61M
FCF margin
-6.4%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
—
Payout ratio
0.0%
Last ex-div date
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