Despite A Drop In Sales, Coherent Stock Has Managed To Strongly Outperform The S&P 500

Coherent Inc. (NASDAQ: COHR) stock price jumped more than 2.5x from $106 in 2018 end, to around $266 currently, primarily due to favorable changes in its P/S multiple. The company, a manufacturer of laser components and equipment, actually witnessed a drop in revenue per share over this period, due to a drop in sales and a rise in the outstanding share count. Despite this, the stock managed to strongly outperform the S&P, which has risen a little over 50%, in comparison, over this period.

In our interactive dashboard, Why Coherent Stock Moved: COHR Stock Has Gained 152% Since 2018, we break down the factors behind this move.

Coherent’s Total Revenue dropped 19% from $1.9 billion in FY 2018 to $1.5 billion currently

• Coherent’s total revenue initially dropped from $1.9 billion in FY ’18 to $1.2 billion in FY ’20 (COHR’s fiscal year ends in September) but has since recovered and currently stands slightly higher at around $1.5 billion.
• As of FY ’21, more than 60% of Coherent’s sales come from OEM laser sources sales, with $914 million worth of products sold in FY ’21.
• The Industrial lasers and systems segment brings in the remaining 40% of revenues, standing at around $574 million as of FY ’21.
• For details about Coherent revenues and comparison to peers, see Coherent Revenue Comparison

Revenue per share decreased 20% from $77.45 in FY ’18 to $62.28 currently

• COHR revenue dropped from $1.9 billion in FY ’18 to $1.5 billion currently, while the outstanding share count increased marginally from 24.6 million in FY ’18 to 24.8 million currently.
• Due to this, RPS has dropped from $77.45 in FY ’18 to $62.28 currently.

Price-To-Sales (P/S) multiple for Coherent jumped from 1.4x in 2018-end to 4.5x by 2021 end, but has pulled back to 4.3x currently, still around 3x higher than its 2018 level

• Due to COHR’s stellar performance since 2018-end, its P/S multiple rose strongly from 1.4x in 2018-end to as high as 4.5x by late 2021.
• However, due to the increased economic uncertainty weighing on the broader markets, the P/S multiple has pulled back, currently standing at around 4.3x, still 3x higher than its 2018 level.
• For additional details about the company stock returns and comparison to peers, see Coherent Stock Return Comparison.

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