COHR US S&P 500Russell 1000 Earnings call · transcribed from the recording
Coherent Corp. (COHR) · Q2 2026 results and valuation
Share price: $234.51 · 2026-11-11
Coherent Corp. is a manufacturing company that develops, manufactures, and markets lasers, transceivers, and other optical and optoelectronic devices, as well as engineered materials. Its products are used in the data center, communications, and industrial markets, including applications in precision manufacturing, energy, and semiconductor equipment. The company operates globally with manufacturing, research, and sales facilities located in the United States and various international locations. Source: 10-K annual report (2026-08-14)
Results Q2 2026 vs Q1 2026 · previous quarter · fiscal Q4 2026 · published 12 Aug 2026 and 6 May 2026
Net income up 16.3% on the previous quarter. Management sounded very upbeat, though noticeably less so answering analysts.
1 · Numbers
+16.3%
Net income vs Q1 2026
Outlook given
Net income 222.5M vs 191.4M
Revenue +13.3%
2 · How management spoke
Very upbeat
Among the most upbeat of all company calls
Answers to analysts: typical, but clearly less so than the script.
The step down under questioning is bigger than last call.
3 · What stood out
Coherent Corp. expects to achieve its first quarter with over $3 billion of revenue by the end of fiscal 2027.
Valuation
Is Coherent Corp. undervalued?
Reverse DCF on net income from the last full fiscal year (no meaningful free cash flow: a bank, insurer or a year of negative cash flow) (2026-06-30), grown for 10 years, discounted back, plus a terminal value. “Implied growth” is the rate the current price assumes.
At 10.0% growth a year (3-year revenue growth), the model's fair value is $83.16 a share — the stock trades 182% above it. Today's price assumes 23.0% growth a year.
Current price
$234.51
close of 2026-11-11
Market implies growth of iThe yearly free-cash-flow growth, for the next 10 years, that today’s share price already assumes. If you believe the company grows faster than this, the stock is cheap under this model; slower, and it is expensive.
+23.0% for 10 yrs
Fair value / share
$83.16
Buy below
$62.37
Price vs fair value
Overvalued 182%
Price vs buy-below price
Overvalued >200%
Management expects
Revenue +41% · from the Q2 2026 report: “Revenue in the data center business increased 41% for full year fiscal 26.”
A guidance figure for revenue, usually one year ahead, not a 10-year free-cash-flow rate.
Read between the lines
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Guidance
After reaching its first $2 billion revenue quarter, the company now expects to achieve its first quarter with over $3 billion of revenue by the end of fiscal 27.
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Figure
Fourth quarter revenue reached a record $2.05 billion, up 13% sequentially and 34% year over year, due to growth in AI data center and communications demand.
Source quote
“Fourth quarter revenue was a record $2.05 billion, up 13% sequentially and 34% year over year, driven by growth in AI data center and communications demand.”
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Guidance
The company expects revenue from multi-rail to begin flowing in the first half of calendar 2027.
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Figure
On a pro forma basis, revenue increased 28% to a record $7 billion.
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Guidance
Revenue in the data center business increased 41% for full year fiscal 26.
4 more
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Key theme
Data center growth is expected to exceed 80% on a year-over-year basis this quarter.
Source quote
“And so we would expect our data center growth, for instance, this quarter on a year over year basis to exceed 80%.”
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Guidance
The company updated its target to greater than 42% as previously stated during its Investor Day.
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Figure
The company is on track to double its internal Indium Phosphide output capacity year over year by the end of the current quarter, reaching this goal one quarter ahead of the original plan.
Source quote
“We remain on track to double our internal Indium Phosphide output capacity year over year by the end of the current quarter, 1 quarter ahead of our original plan.”
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Guidance
The company expects multi-rail to become a meaningful contributor to revenue growth and margin expansion over time.
Tone
How upbeat the language was, compared with other companiesiTone counts positive minus negative finance words, adjusted for length. Executives mostly speak positively, so the labels compare each call with every company's latest call: “typical” is the middle third, “very upbeat” the top tenth, “cautious” the bottom tenth.. Dot: Q2 2026. Ring: Q1 2026.
Management sounded noticeably less positive answering analysts than in its prepared script — one of the biggest drops of any company call. Scripts are polished in advance; a drop under questioning often marks the topics analysts pressed on, so the answers deserve a closer read than the script.
Sentences that drove the tone
“On a pro forma basis, revenue increased 28% to a record $7 billion Our revenue growth combined with gross margin expansion and continued operating leverage drove non GAAP EPS growth...”
“Earnings growth continued to outpace revenue growth in both the quarter and the full year, driven by strong revenue performance gross margin expansion, and improved operating leverage.”
“We delivered record revenue of $7.12 billion, expanded gross margin by over 150 basis points, increased operating margin by nearly 300 basis points, and grew non GAAP earnings per share...”
Full figures
USD · SEC EDGAR XBRL (10-Q, period end 2026-06-30)
| Metric | Q2 2026period end 2026-06-30 | Q1 2026period end 2026-03-31 | Change | Q2 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 2.05B | 1.81B | +13.3% | 1.53B | +33.7% |
| Gross profit | 787.1M | 679.9M | +15.8% | 546.1M | +44.1% |
| Operating income | 278.5M | 184.3M | +51.1% | -63.4M | Turned profit |
| Net income | 222.5M | 191.4M | +16.3% | -115.0M | Turned profit |
| EPS | 1.20 | 0.97 | +23.7% | -0.82 | Turned profit |
| P/E today 39.9 | 95.7 | 113.4 | −17.7 | 12-mo loss | — |
Topics
Most discussed now
- Coherent's accelerated growth rate reflects the exceptional demand environment and its continued rapid expansion of production capacity.
- Coherent also strengthened its balance sheet, reducing debt leverage to 0.7 times from 2 times at the end of FY...
- Coherent thinks it has got the broadest, deepest photonic technology in the industry and the most extensive manufacturing footprint.
- New product ramps for 1.6T OCS system CPO multi-rail systems, thermal management solutions, all of those new products, those ramps...
Faded since Q1 2026
- Fading Given both the near- and long-term demand strength, combined with its continued expansion of production capacity, Coherent expects a…
- Fading Coherent continues to execute on its gross margin expansion strategy, where it generated sequential and year-over-year increases in gross…
- Dropped From a cost reduction perspective, Coherent had improvements from 6-inch indium phosphide.
Latest announcements
Official filings, newest first. Summaries are generated from each filing and its attachment; every figure is checked against the source.
- Results of operations; Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
- Director or officer change; Other events · SEC 8-K
- Results of operations; Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
Coherent Corp. reported Q4 revenue of $2.05 billion, an increase of 33.8% compared to the same period last year.
- Results of operations; Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
Coherent Corp. reported Q3 revenue of $1.81 billion, an increase of 21% year-over-year, with GAAP earnings per share of $0.97, up $1.08 from the previous year.
- Director or officer change · SEC 8-K
Giovanni Barbarossa notified Coherent Corp. on April 27, 2026, of his intention to transition from Chief Strategy Officer to Special Advisor effective on that date.
- Unregistered share sale; Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
NVIDIA is investing $2 billion in Coherent to expand R&D, manufacturing capacity, and supply for next-generation AI infrastructure.
- Results of operations; Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
Coherent Corp. reported Q2 revenue of $1.69 billion, an increase of 17% year-over-year, with GAAP earnings per share of $0.76, up 71% from the previous year.
- Other events · SEC 8-K
Coherent Corp. is recasting historical financial information to reflect its new business segments, Datacenter & Communications and Industrial, effective July 1, 2025, without impacting the company's historical financial position.
Balance sheet & ownership
From SEC filings; short interest is FINRA data via Yahoo. Collected 2026-11-08.
Cash & runway
Cash & equivalents
$1.55B
2026-09-30
Short-term investments
$200.0M
total $1.75B
Implied runway
—
profitable in the last financial year: negative operating cash flow is not burn
Dilution
weighted-average basic shares, per quarter. Change: +25.7% YoY.
| Quarter | Shares |
|---|---|
| Q4 2024 | 154.8M |
| Q1 2025 | 155.2M |
| Q3 2025 | 156.2M |
| Q4 2025 | 167.5M |
| Q1 2026 | 190.2M |
| Q3 2026 | 196.2M |
Shares outstanding: 197.0M (2026-11-02)
Insider transactions
Form 4 open-market trades (codes S/P), trailing 12 months. Coverage: newest 50 of 52 filings; 50 filings parsed.
Sold by insiders
7.6M shares
$1.10B · 34 transactions
Bought by insiders
0 shares
0 transactions
Net direction
net selling