PDF Solutions (NASDAQ:PDFS) Shares Gap Up - Here's Why

Key Points

• PDF Solutions shares gapped up premarket from $43.86 to an open of $50.12 and were last trading near $45.25 on volume of 191,262 shares, signaling intraday volatility.
• Analysts are mixed: two firms rate the stock a Buy and one a Sell, giving a MarketBeat consensus of Hold with an average price target of $43.50, while recent upgrades raised targets (Rosenblatt to $47, DA Davidson to $40).
• The company beat the quarter with $0.30 EPS vs. $0.24 est. and $62.4M revenue vs. $61.95M est., but it still posts a negative net margin and an extreme negative P/E, despite healthy liquidity ratios and ~79.5% institutional ownership.

Shares of PDF Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDFS - Get Free Report) gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $43.86, but opened at $50.12. PDF Solutions shares last traded at $45.2480, with a volume of 191,262 shares.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on PDF Solutions from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on PDF Solutions from $37.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d)" rating on shares of PDF Solutions in a report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised PDF Solutions from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Sunday, April 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, PDF Solutions has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $43.50.

PDF Solutions Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2,305.65 and a beta of 1.56. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $35.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.31. The company has a quick ratio of 2.28, a current ratio of 2.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

PDF Solutions (NASDAQ:PDFS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.06. PDF Solutions had a positive return on equity of 4.86% and a negative net margin of 0.29%.The company had revenue of $62.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $61.95 million. As a group, analysts forecast that PDF Solutions, Inc. will post 0.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PDF Solutions

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of PDF Solutions by 40.9% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 19,092 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $365,000 after purchasing an additional 5,540 shares during the period. Amundi grew its position in shares of PDF Solutions by 117,205.9% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 19,942 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $381,000 after purchasing an additional 19,925 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in shares of PDF Solutions by 4.3% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 18,465 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $353,000 after purchasing an additional 753 shares during the period. Jane Street Group LLC grew its position in shares of PDF Solutions by 113.6% in the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 60,883 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,163,000 after purchasing an additional 32,383 shares during the period. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of PDF Solutions in the first quarter valued at $105,000. 79.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

PDF Solutions Company Profile

PDF Solutions, Inc, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is a technology company that provides data-driven solutions for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Founded in 1991, the company specializes in software and services designed to improve yield, productivity and profitability for semiconductor fabricators. Over its history, PDF Solutions has positioned itself as a partner to foundries, integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), assembly and test operations, offering tailored data analytics and engineering expertise.

The company's flagship offering, the Exensio platform, aggregates and analyzes data from process equipment, metrology and inspection systems to identify yield-limiting defects and process excursions.

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