Camtek Stock Plunges 9%, Wiping Out $447 Million, Even As It Posts Record Revenue
The chip-inspection maker guided to about $180 million for the fourth quarter, but its gross margin disappointed management.
Camtek, the Israeli maker of wafer-inspection equipment for chipmakers, fell 8.52% to $102.80 in Wednesday trading as of 10:39 a.m. ET, erasing $447 million in market value, after it reported record third-quarter revenue of $161.3 million. Management acknowledged on its earnings call that gross margin disappointed.
Record sales, soft margin
Revenue rose 28% from a year earlier, and Camtek guided to about $180 million for the fourth quarter. Management also outlined a 2027 revenue target of more than $800 million.
The CFO blamed the margin shortfall on component costs and a stronger shekel, management said on the call. Customers, it added, are booking production slots a year out.
The stock was on pace for its second drop of 7% or more this month and its biggest one-day decline since Oct. 22.
What Camtek makes
Camtek builds inspection and metrology machines that scan semiconductor wafers and measure their features during production to catch defective dice. Its systems serve advanced packaging, memory, image sensors and compound semiconductors, and it earns revenue from system sales and from service contracts after the 12-month warranty.
Revenue was $496.1 million in 2025, according to its 20-F, with China the largest region at $243.9 million. It manufactures in Israel and Germany.
A shaky month for the shares
Camtek entered the session after a 32% slide over the previous month, leaving the shares 46% below their highest close of the past year, set on May 11. They were still up about 6% year-to-date as of Tuesday's close, trailing the S&P 500's gain of about 11% over the same span.
Morgan Stanley had downgraded the stock to Underweight and cut its price target to $126, arguing that much of the good news was already in the share price and flagging growing competition from China, according to a Yahoo Finance article.
Camtek's market value stood at $4.8 billion at Wednesday's report time, with the fourth-quarter guide of about $180 million now the benchmark for its next results.
Sources
- Camtek (CAMT) Stock Draws Fresh Price Target Split After 2026 Guidance Updates — Yahoo Finance
- Camtek (CAMT) Earnings Are Here Following Oversold Reset But Is The Valuation Already Priced In — Yahoo Finance
- Down 33.2% in 4 Weeks, Here's Why You Should You Buy the Dip in Camtek (CAMT) — Yahoo Finance
- Camtek: Q3 Earnings Snapshot – WTOP News — wtop.com
- Camtek Non-GAAP EPS of $0.99 in-line, revenue of $161.3M beats by $0.66M (CAMT:NASDAQ) — seekingalpha.com
- The company's filing (Camtek) — SEC filing
