Initial Reaction to Universal Display’s September-Quarter Miss

With a few minutes to go until the closing bell was rung, we saw the shares of Universal Display (OLED) come under some pressure and trading volume pick up. We now know the reason for that as we look at the company’s September-quarter earnings report, which widely missed market expectations.

Revenue came in at $139.6 million, well below the consensus forecast of $165.76 million, with the management team attributing the miss to “timing shifts, including customer pull-ins earlier in the year and a one-time out-of-period adjustment.”

We will, of course, tune into the earnings call to better understand these puts and takes that impacted the September quarter and why Universal Display management is forecasting a revenue rebound in the current quarter. The company now expects to achieve the lower end of that guidance range, which implies current-quarter revenue near $172 million on the low end.

However, we will share that our confidence in the management team is shaken, given that with less than a month to go in the September quarter, it reiterated its $650 million-$700 million revenue guidance for 2025. Moreover, it flies in the face of the quarterly results and guidance from LG Display (LPL), Samsung (SSNLF), and other data points we’ve collected in the display space.

We’re not going to make any rash decisions, but as far as we are concerned, the team at Universal Display will need to deliver a very credible narrative. As you know, our mission is to remain objective and not let any hopium get in the way of our decisions.

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At the time of publication, TheStreet Pro Portfolio was long OLED.