Strength Seen in Kulicke and Soffa (KLIC): Can Its 6.2% Jump Turn into More Strength?

Kulicke and Soffa KLIC shares rallied 6.2% in the last trading session to close at $51.33. This move can be attributable to notable volume with a higher number of shares being traded than in a typical session. This compares to the stock's 0.3% loss over the past four weeks.

Kulicke and Soffa is benefiting from improved order activity, favorable utilization trends in semiconductor and memory markets, and growth in advanced packaging, advanced dispense, and power semiconductor opportunities.

This semiconductor equipment maker is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.33 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -10.8%. Revenues are expected to be $190 million, up 14.4% from the year-ago quarter.

Earnings and revenue growth expectations certainly give a good sense of the potential strength in a stock, but empirical research shows that trends in earnings estimate revisions are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements.

For Kulicke and Soffa, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on KLIC going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>

Kulicke and Soffa is a member of the Zacks Electronics - Manufacturing Machinery industry. One other stock in the same industry, Veeco Instruments VECO, finished the last trading session 1.7% higher at $31.07. VECO has returned -4.7% over the past month.

For Veeco, the consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $0.25. This represents a change of -39% from what the company reported a year ago. Veeco currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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