A beat-and-raise quarter from semiconductor materials supplier Qnity Electronics sent shares soaring early Tuesday. The results could also help calm investors worried about the recent chip selloff.
Tuesday morning, Qnity reported second-quarter earnings per share of $1.19, up 53% year over year, from sales of $1.4 billion, up 22% year over year. Wall Street was looking for EPS of $1.07 and sales of just under $1.4 billion, according to FactSet.
Qnity shares were up 10% at $147.19 in early trading, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up about 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively.
Coming into Tuesday trading, Qnity stock was up about 63% this year, but down about 6% over the past month, selling off with the semiconductor sector. (The PHLX Semiconductor Index was down roughly 10% over the past month.)
Along with solid earnings, Qnity raised guidance. Management now expects earnings per share of about $4.50 from sales of $5.6 billion. Prior guidance given in May called for earnings per share of about $3.97 from sales of $5.3 billion. Wall Street currently projects EPS of $4.19 from sales of $5.4 billion.
"We delivered our ninth consecutive quarter of profitable growth," said CEO Jon Kemp in a news release. "The industry shift toward shrink and stack is lengthening the journey every chip takes, requiring more process complexity and more layers, creating a multiplier effect for materials intensity. Qnity sits at the center of this trend with one of the broadest portfolios of end-to-end solutions across the stack."
The tech industry needs ever-improving semiconductors to power the AI computing boom. That is benefiting a host of companies, including Qnity. And for now, growth isn't slowing down.
Qnity's sales grew 22% year-over-year in the second quarter, up from 17% growth in the first quarter.
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