ASYS — Q2 2026 Financial Report Analysis

AI packaging equipment carries the quarter while the silicon carbide side shrinks

Amtech Systems' revenue rose 14.5% to $22.4 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2026, and GAAP net income rose to $1.7 million ($0.10 per diluted share) from $0.1 million ($0.01) a year earlier. Almost all of the growth came from one place: the Thermal Processing Solutions (TPS) segment, which makes reflow ovens (the furnaces that melt solder to bond chips onto substrates and circuit boards) used in AI chip packaging and server board assembly. TPS revenue rose 24.9% to $17.7 million. The other segment, Semiconductor Fabrication Solutions (SFS), which sells polishing consumables and equipment largely for silicon carbide (SiC) wafers used in electric-vehicle power chips, fell 13.3% to $4.6 million and slipped to a small operating loss.

A note on the calendar: Amtech's fiscal year ends on September 30, so the company calls this its fiscal 2026 third quarter. We label it Q2 2026 here because it covers April–June 2026, the second calendar quarter. This is the most recent quarter on file (10-Q filed August 5, 2026); results for the July–September quarter, which closes Amtech's fiscal 2026, had not been released when this was written.

At a glance

• Revenue $22.4 million, +14.5%, at the top of the $20.5–22.5 million range management gave in May. Management said AI-related revenue roughly doubled (up about 120%) from a year earlier.
• Gross margin 50.0% vs 46.7%, and the real improvement is larger than it looks: last year's figure was lifted by a one-time $1.0 million government payroll-tax refund. Without it, last year's margin was 41.5%.
• Cash jumped to $83.1 million from $24.4 million at the end of March, mostly from a $60 million share sale in June ($56.5 million after fees). That is roughly a full year of revenue at the current pace, and the balance sheet carries no borrowings beyond small equipment leases.

Results

n/m = not meaningful: last year's base ($0.1 million of profit, one cent per share) is so small that a percentage change would mislead.

Operating margin is the share of revenue left after paying for production, staff, research and overhead, before interest and tax. Adjusted EBITDA is the company's own profit measure that also adds back depreciation, stock-based pay and one-off items; it is not a GAAP figure.

Where the growth came from, and where it didn't

TPS (79% of revenue). The 10-Q attributes the jump in TPS orders to "strong demand in Asia for AI applications", and the earnings release cites reflow equipment for advanced packaging (the step where AI processors and their memory are mounted together on a substrate) and for server boards. TPS took $24.3 million of orders against $17.7 million of revenue, a book-to-bill of 1.37 (orders divided by shipments; above 1.0 means the order book is growing). TPS backlog reached $25.7 million, up from $15.2 million a year ago. Segment operating income rose to $4.5 million, a 25.5% margin, from $2.9 million (20.5%). More than 19% of TPS revenue was parts and service, which tends to repeat more reliably than equipment sales.

SFS (21% of revenue). The company blamed "very weak demand for products supporting SiC wafer production." SFS swung from $0.9 million of operating profit to a $0.1 million loss, and its backlog roughly halved to $3.0 million from $6.1 million. Orders of $4.5 million did slightly exceed revenue this quarter, but there is no sign yet of a recovery. Management says it is cutting costs in this segment rather than expecting demand to come back soon.

Costs. Selling, general and administrative expenses rose $0.6 million to $8.0 million, which the company put down to executive hiring and tax and IT consulting fees. R&D rose to $0.9 million from $0.4 million and went mostly to TPS, where the company says it is developing next-generation reflow equipment. Because gross profit rose $2.1 million while overhead rose about $1.1 million, operating income more than doubled.

What the headline numbers hide

• The year-ago comparison flatters less than it seems. Last year's quarter included a $1.0 million Employee Retention Credit refund (a COVID-era payroll-tax credit) booked in gross profit. Without it, last year's operating income of $0.9 million would have been roughly zero. The year-over-year improvement in the core business is therefore larger than the reported figures show.
• Part of the profit jump is a lower tax bill, not just better operations. Pre-tax income rose to $2.3 million from $0.9 million, but last year's tax charge of $0.8 million ate 88% of pre-tax profit. This year's $0.6 million is about 27%. A smaller tax drag explains a good share of the step from $0.1 million to $1.7 million of net income. Interest income on the larger cash pile ($0.27 million vs $0.09 million) also helped, and a $0.36 million currency loss, mainly from the dollar weakening against the Chinese renminbi, hurt.
• Per-share figures face dilution, not buybacks. Diluted share count rose 12% to 16.0 million from 14.3 million. The June offering added 2.9 million shares at $20.50 each, but they counted for only about four weeks of this quarter. With 17.5 million shares outstanding at June 30, the next quarter will carry the full increase. Net income has to keep growing for EPS just to stay level.
• GAAP vs adjusted. Non-GAAP net income of $2.4 million ($0.14 per share) excludes $0.39 million of stock-based pay, a $0.15 million right-of-use asset impairment and an $0.08 million fixed-asset disposal (both tied to subletting a subsidiary's Spartanburg, South Carolina site), $0.05 million of severance and $0.03 million of intangibles amortization. The gap is small, and stock-based pay is a recurring cost rather than a one-off, so the GAAP figure is the better guide.
• Cash conversion is good for the nine months but softer this quarter. Operating cash flow was $7.3 million over the nine months against $2.9 million of net income. However, $2.8 million of that came from paying suppliers more slowly (accounts payable rose to $10.4 million from $7.7 million in September), which cannot repeat indefinitely. In April–June alone, operating cash flow was $1.1 million against $1.7 million of net income. Inventory rose 9% to $20.5 million since September, faster than the 3.9% nine-month revenue growth. A growing backlog makes that understandable, but it is worth watching. Receivables were flat at $19.7 million.
• The order book is concentrated. Per the 10-Q, one TPS customer accounted for 28% of backlog and another customer for 17%. A delay at either would show up quickly in a company this size.
• Last year's losses were write-downs. The nine months to June 2025 showed a $31.4 million net loss, driven by a $20.4 million goodwill write-off, a $2.6 million intangible write-off and a $6.0 million write-down of inventory for older (mature-node) chip products. None of that recurred this year. Nine-month net income was $2.9 million on revenue up 3.9% to $61.8 million.

Did the guidance hold up?

This is our first report on Amtech, so there is no earlier write-up of ours to check against. Management's own May forecast for this quarter was revenue of $20.5–22.5 million and an adjusted EBITDA margin "in the low double digits." It delivered $22.4 million and a 14.7% adjusted EBITDA margin. Revenue came in at the top of the range and profitability beat the forecast.

Outlook

For the July–September quarter (its fiscal fourth quarter), Amtech guided revenue of $22.5–24.0 million, about 4% above this quarter at the midpoint, and an adjusted EBITDA margin in the "low to mid-teens." It cited AI-related demand for advanced packaging and panel-level packaging equipment.

The leadership is also changing. Chief Executive Bob Daigle retired from the role on August 13, 2026 and became executive chairman. President and COO Guy Shechter, who became COO earlier this year, replaced him as CEO.

Our read: the guidance looks well covered. Backlog of $28.7 million already exceeds the top of the next quarter's revenue range, and TPS orders outran shipments by more than a third. The margin guidance, though, is slightly below the 14.7% just delivered, so management is not projecting further margin expansion next quarter. That fits a business that is adding R&D and staff. The bigger open question is what the $83 million cash pile will be used for. The 10-Q lists the intended uses as faster growth, "accretive merger and acquisition opportunities" and working capital. Amtech built itself through acquisitions, and how well it spends this money will matter more to the next two years than any single quarter's orders. Until SiC demand recovers, SFS will remain a small drag. The company's growth now depends almost entirely on AI packaging spending at a few large customers.

Takeaway: Amtech has become, in effect, a small AI-packaging equipment company: TPS made up 79% of revenue and more than all of the operating profit growth, and its 1.37 book-to-bill plus a 35% larger backlog support management's guidance for another up quarter. The two risks are a highly concentrated order book (two customers hold 45% of backlog) and a share count 12% higher than a year ago, so per-share gains will lag the revenue story.