FREMONT, Calif., July 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR), a worldwide supplier of semiconductor test and reliability qualification equipment, today announced financial results for its fiscal 2019 fourth quarter and full year ended May 31, 2019.

Fiscal Fourth Quarter Financial Results:

• Net sales were $7.2 million, compared to $7.3 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018.
• GAAP net income was $110,000, or $0.00 per diluted share, and includes $118,000 in restructuring charges related to severance payments as part of the Company’s reduction in workforce announced in the third quarter. This compared to GAAP net income of $191,000, or $0.01 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018.
• Non-GAAP net income was $428,000, or $0.02 per diluted share, which excludes the impact of stock-based compensation expense and restructuring charges, compared to non-GAAP net income of $365,000, or $0.02 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018.

Fiscal Year Financial Results:

• Net sales were $21.1 million, compared to $29.6 million in fiscal 2018.
• GAAP net loss was $5.2 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, and includes approximately $1.5 million in one-time charges, or $0.07 per share, consisting of $725,000 in restructuring charges related to severance payments as part of the Company’s reduction in workforce announced in the third quarter, and a $795,000 adjustment in the third quarter for excess and obsolete inventory. This compared to GAAP net income of $528,000, or $0.02 per diluted share, in fiscal 2018.
• Non-GAAP net loss was $2.8 million, or $0.13 per diluted share, which excludes the impact of stock-based compensation expense, restructuring charges and adjustment for excess and obsolete inventory, compared to non-GAAP net income of $1.5 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, in fiscal 2018.
• Backlog as of May 31, 2019 was $7.5 million, compared to $8.4 million as of May 31, 2018.
• Total cash and cash equivalents at fiscal year-end was $5.4 million.

An explanation of the use of non-GAAP financial information and a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the accompanying tables.

Fourth Quarter and Recent Business Highlights:

• Began shipments in its fiscal fourth quarter of its recently introduced FOX-CP™ and FOX-NP™ test and burn-in systems, including an initial FOX-CP system to a major new customer and several FOX-NP test and burn-in systems to two different customers.
• Received order from new customer Skorpios Technologies for its FOX-P™ Platform to perform 100% wafer level test and burn-in for infant mortality and aging of silicon photonics devices as part of a significant production ramp to meet demand for high speed optical transceivers.
• Received initial order from a new customer for its FOX-CP single-wafer test and burn-in system for 100% test and burn-in of the customer’s new device for high-volume production over a multi-year ramp of products in the enterprise and data center market. The FOX-CP system is a new low-cost single-wafer compact test and reliability verification solution for logic, memory and photonic devices.
• Received $2.7 million follow-on order from one of its lead FOX-XP™ Test and Burn-in System customers for a FOX-XP System and FOX WaferPaks™ to provide additional test capacity for the customer’s increasing silicon photonics device production requirements.
• Shipped over $2.6 million in consumable business including Aehr’s proprietary WaferPak full-wafer contactors and DiePak singulated die and module carriers to eight different customers during the fiscal fourth quarter.

Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented:

“We had a good year for our FOX product family, including our newest FOX-NP and FOX-CP solutions introduced earlier this year. We announced three new customers that will use these solutions to perform 100% test and burn-in production on their devices. We see each of these new customers moving to production, as well as adding new customers for these solutions, in the new fiscal year. Our FOX-NP is a low-cost, small footprint, entry-level system providing a configuration and price point for companies to do initial product development, product qualification and production, enabling an easier transition to our FOX-XP system for full production test. Our FOX-CP is a low-cost single-wafer compact test and reliability verification solution for logic, memory and photonic devices. These new test and burn-in solutions complement the capabilities of our FOX-XP system. We believe these new solutions will significantly expand the market for our FOX-P products.

“We believe we have several new opportunities for growth. As we announced in the fourth quarter, our initial FOX-CP customer will be performing 100% test of devices that will be used in a very high-volume application for the Enterprise and Data Center market, with a build out of this production ramp over the next several years. The data storage market, as well as multiple devices related to the worldwide 5G build-out, are great new opportunities for our test and burn-in systems, where these end markets and customers require devices to have extremely high levels of quality and long-term reliability. We believe we have new growth opportunities in known good die for automotive modules, heterogeneous semiconductor packaged devices, and the emerging Silicon Carbide device market. We also remain very optimistic about the silicon photonics and photonics sensors markets that generated significant revenue for Aehr in fiscal 2019 and believe these markets will continue to be significant growth drivers for Aehr over the next several years.

“Aehr finished the fiscal year with strong revenue and a return to profitability in the fourth quarter. Heading into fiscal 2020, we remain very optimistic about growth in systems and consumables within our installed base of customers as well as expanding the number of customers with our family of FOX-P solutions.”  

Fiscal 2020 Financial Guidance:
For the fiscal year ending May 31, 2020, the Company expects full year total revenue to be between $27 million and $31 million, which would represent growth between 28% and 47% year over year, and to be profitable for the fiscal year.

Management Conference Call and Webcast
Aehr Test Systems will host a conference call and webcast today at 5:00 p.m. Eastern (2:00 p.m. PT) to discuss its fiscal 2019 fourth quarter and full year operating results. To access the call dial 888-254-3590 (+1 323-994-2093 outside the United States) and give the participant pass code 7902515. In addition, a live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available over the Internet at www.aehr.com in the Investor Relations section. A replay of the conference call will also be available via telephone beginning approximately two hours after conclusion of the call through 8:00 p.m. ET on July 25, 2019. To access the replay dial-in information, please click here.

About Aehr Test Systems
Headquartered in Fremont, California, Aehr Test Systems is a worldwide provider of test systems for burning-in and testing logic, optical and memory integrated circuits and has over 2,500 systems installed worldwide. Increased quality and reliability needs of the Automotive and Mobility integrated circuit markets are driving additional test requirements, incremental capacity needs, and new opportunities for Aehr Test products in package, wafer level, and singulated die/module level test. Aehr Test has developed and introduced several innovative products, including the ABTS™ and FOX-P™ families of test and burn-in systems and FOX WaferPak™ Aligner, FOX-XP WaferPak Contactor, FOX DiePak^® Carrier and FOX DiePak Loader. The ABTS system is used in production and qualification testing of packaged parts for both lower power and higher power logic devices as well as all common types of memory devices. The FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems are full wafer contact and singulated die/module test and burn-in systems used for burn-in and functional test of complex devices, such as leading-edge memories, digital signal processors, microprocessors, microcontrollers, systems-on-a-chip, and integrated optical devices. The FOX-CP system is a new low-cost single-wafer compact test and reliability verification solution for logic, memory and photonic devices and the newest addition to the FOX-P product family. The WaferPak contactor contains a unique full wafer probe card capable of testing wafers up to 300mm that enables IC manufacturers to perform test and burn-in of full wafers on Aehr Test FOX systems. The DiePak Carrier is a reusable, temporary package that enables IC manufacturers to perform cost-effective final test and burn-in of both bare die and modules. For more information, please visit Aehr Test Systems’ website at www.aehr.com .