EU SMID Technology Hardware: Thoughts and numbers into Q2‘26 earnings season: Continue to prefer SemiCap over Semi Devices

Research evidence excerpt

EU SMID Technology Hardware: Thoughts and numbers into Q2‘26 earnings season: Continue to prefer SemiCap over Semi Devices

o see upside to consensus

forecasts across our covered names (AIXA, COTN, IFCN). On Aixtron (OW),

we expect to see another strong quarter of orders as the optical build-out EU SMID Tech, reporting calendar:

continues. Importantly, we expect Optoelectronic order activity to diversify as

Tue 28 July: Soitec (N, aft. mkt.)

Asian customers become a larger part of the mix. Positive commentary on GaN

Wed 29 July: Melexis (N) (not necessarily orders) should also be helpful in supporting the next leg of

growth. Comet (OW) should be able to report strong orders and growing Thu 30 July: Aixtron (OW), Inficon (OW)

consignment stock (also a forward indicator). Mid-term guidance looks very Fri 31 July: Comet (OW)

conservative/outdated (we don’t expect an update), but we do see significant Tue 4 Aug.: ams-OSRAM (OW)

room for estimates to increase. We note that even with the significant share

Thu 6 Aug.: Nordic Semi. (N)

price performance of the Semi-Cap group year to date that on JPM forecasts,

Wed 19 Aug.: Sensirion (N) these Semi-Cap names are trading broadly in-line with 10-year median

multiples.

• Where we are cautious: The EU SMID Semi Devices group has a relatively

high exposure to Consumer, and limited direct exposure to the AI stack, which

generally leaves us cautious on this group. In particular, we are cautious on

Nordic Semiconductor (N) which has a high exposure to Consumer electronics

(~60%) and gross margins may see pressure from higher testing and packaging

costs, as well as Memory (which is an input to some Nordic systems) while

forecasts look full while the shares trade ahead of historic average multiples.