PDF Solutions (NASDAQ:PDFS) released second-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Thursday. Read the complete transcript below.
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Summary
PDF Solutions Inc. reported Q2 2026 revenues of $61.5 million, reflecting a 19% year-over-year increase, with a 22% increase for the first half of the year.
Key bookings included eight-figure contracts for SecureWise and DirectScan systems, and several seven-figure contracts for Exensio products, driven by demand in AI ecosystems.
The company placed three new eProbe inspection machines, with two to new customers, reaching two-thirds of their annual goal.
SecureWise achieved a record eight-figure contract, reinforcing its pervasive presence in 300-mm fabs and expanding services to back-end test and assembly facilities.
Gross margin for Q2 was 73%, lower than Q1 due to fewer perpetual software licenses, but expected to revert to higher levels next quarter.
The total backlog grew to $271 million, up 10% from last quarter, with strong bookings momentum anticipated for the second half of the year.
PDF Solutions reconfirmed its guidance of 20% year-over-year revenue growth for 2026.
Cash and cash equivalents rose to $114.9 million, aided by a follow-on equity offering, with plans to increase cash balances while reducing debt.
The company's investment focus is on expanding semiconductor capabilities through AI and increased capex, primarily for eProbe tools.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good day, everyone, and welcome to the PDF Solutions Inc. conference call to discuss its financial results for the second quarter, ending Tuesday, June 30, 2026. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentations, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. If you have not received a copy of the corresponding press release, it has been posted to the PDF Solutions website at www.pdf.com.
Some of the statements that will be made in the course of this conference are forward-looking, including statements regarding PDF Solutions' future financial results and performance, growth rates, and demand for its solutions. PDF's actual results could differ materially. You should refer to the section entitled Risk Factors on pages 16–30 of PDF Solutions' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2025, and similar disclosures in subsequent SEC filings.
The forward-looking statements and risks stated in this conference call are based on information available to PDF today. PDF assumes no obligation to update them. Now I'd like to introduce John K. Kibarian, PDF Solutions' President and Chief Executive Officer, and Adnan Raza, PDF Solutions' Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Kibarian, please go ahead.
John K. Kibarian, President and CEO
Thank you for joining us on today's call. If you've not already seen our earnings press release and management report for the second quarter, please go to the Investors section of our website where each has been posted. For today's call, I will provide a summary of the past quarter, our perspective on the environment, and outlook for the next quarter and the remainder of the year. The second quarter built on a strong Q1, providing great progress on our objective to position PDF Solutions as the leading commercial data analytics and mission-critical platform for the semiconductor industry.
This was visible in the bookings, customer activity, and in our product development during the quarter. From a bookings perspective, SecureWise and DirectScan systems led the way with eight-figure contracts for each. We achieved a number of seven-figure contracts for Exensio products and services, including with hyperscalers and photonics companies, as the growth in the AI ecosystems continues to be strong. Finally, Cimetrix bookings were at a record high on top of a very strong Q1, as the equipment industry continues to be robust overall across all products.
The strong bookings resulted in building backlog while supporting meaningful revenue growth for the first half of the year compared with the previous year. Adnan will provide revenue details in his prepared remarks. During the quarter we placed three new eProbe e-beam inspection machines with customers. This includes two with new customers, one of which is an evaluation and the other of which is a five-year subscription. The third is to a new factory for an existing customer as part of a previously signed contract.
These three machines, along with the machine shipped in Q1, mean we are two-thirds of the way to our goal for the year. The new customer is using DirectScan on a more mature process node compared to the other DirectScan customers and for five years, carrying them well into mass production. We feel this contract is important as it demonstrates the value of the DirectScan approach in mature nodes. We believe the large SecureWise booking with an existing customer reaffirms SecureWise's availability in virtually all 300-millimeter fabs around the world and for many more years.
While it was an eight-figure contract and the largest in the history of SecureWise that we are aware of, the contract value is a minimum, and both the customer and we anticipate building from this base. With this contract in place, we have now refreshed the legacy SecureWise contracts as well as expanded the business to provide SecureWise services to front-end fabs and back-end test and assembly facilities. Our industry thrives from collaboration between suppliers and customers.
In the future, more of that collaboration will be AI agent–driven. SecureWise is well positioned to be the cornerstone of an agentic collaboration across the industry. Selling activity was very high across all aspects of the semiconductor industry from hyperscalers to equipment vendors. We did see significant activity in our characterization and DirectScan systems as customers look to develop advanced processes and nodes. We anticipate that this activity will result in strong bookings in this category as the year progresses.
Overall, it was a strong Q2 and first half of the year both in terms of our traction with customers and our product development. Now let's turn to our perspective on the environment. The investment in semiconductors continues to be driven by the unprecedented buildout of AI data centers. The unique element of this cycle is how AI is transforming not just the demand for semiconductors but also how engineering and production are being executed. While it's debatable where we are in the semiconductor demand cycle, it is clear to me that we are in the very early stages of AI transformation of semiconductor manufacturing and engineering.
All participants in the semiconductor supply chain will need to leverage AI agents to be more nimble, innovative, and cost effective. As the semiconductor industry continues to evolve, opportunities for open dialogue and peer-to-peer learning are more important than ever. PDF Solutions Connect Conference is designed to bring together members of the community to share insights, discuss challenges, and explore technologies and innovations shaping our industry's future, including recent developments from PDF Solutions.
The event will be held October 15th and 16th in San Francisco during SEMICON West Week. Looking toward the second half of the year, we see increased opportunities across the entire product portfolio. With that optimism and our progress in the first half of the year, we reconfirmed 20% year-over-year revenue growth for this year. I want to thank all of PDF Solutions' customers, employees, and contractors for their efforts during the quarter. Now I'll turn the call over to Adnan, who will review the financials and provide his perspective on our results.
Adnan Raza, CFO and EVP Finance
Thank you, John. Good afternoon, everyone, and good to speak with you all today. We're happy to review the financial results of the second quarter and to bring you up to date on the progress of the business. Please note that all of the financial results we discuss in today's call will be on a non-GAAP basis, and a reconciliation to GAAP financials is provided in the materials on our website. For Q2, our total revenues were $61.5 million, up 19% on a year-over-year basis.
For the first half of this year, our revenues grew 22% on a year-over-year basis versus the comparable first half of last year due to contributions from multiple products. We are pleased with the revenue growth we saw compared to last year and remain committed to our long-term revenue growth rate target of 20%. Our platform revenue this quarter was $49.1 million, up 14% versus Q2 of last year and up 24% for the six-month year-to-date period versus the comparable period of last year.
We benefited this quarter from the DirectScan booking that John talked about, which is with a new non–leading-edge customer. Our ending backlog includes a meaningful amount of revenue left in this contract, which will be recognized over the years to come. Our volume-based revenue increased 45% versus Q2 of last year, driven by strong gainshare and the strength in Cimetrix runtime licenses. From a bookings perspective, John spoke about the multiple eight-figure and seven-figure deals booked during the quarter, which were across multiple products in the PDF platform.
Our business activity with equipment customers was strong, including both SecureWise and Cimetrix. Our total backlog grew to $271 million this quarter, up 10% versus last quarter and up 16% versus Q2 of last year. Based on what we can see in our pipeline, we anticipate strong bookings momentum for the second half of the year and expect to grow our backlog as we exit this year. It is worth noting, as a reminder, that we do not include potential future Cimetrix runtime licenses or gainshare revenues in our backlog, and our backlog would be even higher if we included some estimates of these highly probable future amounts.
We reported gross margin of 73% for Q2, which was lower versus Q1 of this year due in part to the higher perpetual software licenses in Q1. We expect our gross margin to increase next quarter towards the higher levels we have seen during the prior quarters, and we have line of sight to our long-term gross margin target model of 77%. Our operating expense for the quarter was up only 5% versus the same quarter of last year, mainly to support the increases in our R&D expenses, offset by better management in our SG&A resources.
We delivered operating margins of 22%, or about 300 basis points higher than the same quarter of last year, due to disciplined spend. Even with the lower gross margins this quarter, we remain committed to our 27% target operating margin model communicated in December. For EPS, we reported profit of $0.27 for the quarter, which was up 42% versus the same quarter of last year and up 49% for the year-to-date comparable period. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $114.9 million compared to $31.2 million of prior quarter, and outstanding debt of $67.5 million.
During the quarter we helped Advantest exit their equity stake at a more than 2x return for their investment in PDF shares via a follow-on equity offering, and we're thankful to them for their continued partnership. As part of the equity offering we sold approximately 1.9 million primary shares and added $81.8 million to our balance sheet. During the quarter we generated operating cash flow of $16.4 million and utilized $14.1 million towards capex, mainly for eProbe tools to meet the demand we are seeing and to order some of the longer lead-time items as we look to future shipments.
For each of the next two quarters, we expect to spend incrementally higher capex than Q2. For the full year, we expect the average quarterly capex similar to Q2. The increased capex year over year is in part due to higher component costs we're seeing to meet the customer demands that John spoke about for the DirectScan systems. Given the strength of our business, we expect to grow our cash balances this year and end the year at a higher ending cash balance compared to Q2, while we also bring down our debt balance via scheduled payments.
As we look to the rest of the year, and based on the bookings momentum in our deal pipeline discussed earlier, we reaffirm our prior guidance of revenue growth of 20% for full year 2026 compared to the prior full year 2025. With that, let me turn the call over to the operator for Q&A.
OPERATOR
Thank you, Mr. Raza. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question at this time, please press star 11 on your telephone. If you're using a speakerphone, please lift a handset before asking a question. Please wait one moment for our first question. Our first question comes from the line of Clark with D.A. Davidson. Your line is open.
Clark, Analyst at D.A. Davidson
Hi there. Thank you. Roughly a year ago you noted that the target audience for DirectScan systems was five to ten customers. Based on the conversations you are having today with prospects, has that group expanded?
John K. Kibarian, President and CEO
Yeah, it's a good question, Clark. Thank you. We do think it's expanding. In my prepared remarks, I mentioned that we saw value for a customer that was developing a more mature node, and we do see other customers like them that are developing more mature nodes, and we had been working with them for quite a while. This contract was a significant contract for us. It kicked off in the second quarter, and we do see, besides them, expansion there as well as expansion with other customers.
It does increase the aperture. How much broader it is, I don't know. But it's definitely bigger than what we thought.
Clark, Analyst at D.A. Davidson
Got it. And then it was great to see the acceleration in backlog growth this quarter. Can you talk about the source of growth and if this is primarily coming from your large existing customers, or if there's a broadening across the customer base?
John K. Kibarian, President and CEO
Yeah. So some of it's from new customers, as I alluded to on that DirectScan contract, which contributed to backlog, as Adnan said in his prepared remarks. But also usually a good chunk of it is existing customers. As I said, the large eight-figure SecureWise contract was with an existing equipment company, extending out for a number of years their use of the system at the minimum level, with growth on top of that.
Clark, Analyst at D.A. Davidson
Got it. And then last one for Adnan, just could you help me better understand the components that drove the gross margin contraction this quarter, if we should think about current levels being the run rate for the rest of the year, or if we should think about expansion back to more of the Q1 levels?
Adnan Raza, CFO and EVP Finance
Yeah, absolutely. So I think I said this in prepared remarks, but really Q1 had some perpetual software licenses, and that is really what drove the difference for this quarter. I also mentioned in the remarks that for the next quarter we expect the margins to be reverting back to the levels that we are historically used to. I think more important than anything, if you remember when we raised our gross margin and operating margin targets, we said that we expect this new target to be achieved at a faster pace than what took us for the last ones.
And recall the last ones took us two years. So as long as we're inside of that time window, that remains our goal. And the last comment I made on the call and the prepared remarks is that we have a line of sight to the 77% target model. So stay tuned.
Clark, Analyst at D.A. Davidson
Got it. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Blair Abernethy with Rosenblatt Securities. Your line is open.
Blair Abernethy, Analyst at Rosenblatt Securities
Hi. Nice quarter, guys.
John K. Kibarian, President and CEO
Thank you.
Blair Abernethy, Analyst at Rosenblatt Securities
I'm just wondering first off on SecureWise, to get an eight-figure contract there is pretty aggressive. How are you thinking about the market opportunity now for SecureWise, that you've had it for a year or so, and just how big do you think that TAM could be?
John K. Kibarian, President and CEO
Yeah, when we acquired it, our thesis was that they had really only monetized the equipment vendors. They fundamentally installed all the front-end fabs and then charged the equipment vendors for access. You saw last year we did—and it came out at our user conference—a large contract with Intel that standardized on SecureWise. And they spoke at our user conference that they would make SecureWise available to any equipment vendor that wanted to have remote access at Intel.
And they continue to talk about that at their events with equipment vendors about the importance of getting remote connectivity and superior support. They provide a minimal level through that contract. And then if the equipment vendor wants to transmit lots of data and provide more AI-driven solutions, then they direct the equipment vendor to us. So this has been a great way for us to convince every equipment vendor remote access is possible because Intel's made that possible.
Now with this contract we signed this last quarter, we took a very significant customer of ours on the equipment side and committed across all 300-millimeter fabs for a number of years, so that communicates to the equipment industry that SecureWise will be available at any front-end fab that you're going to. Intel also, as well as other customers, started making it available in the back-end test and assembly. So if you look at what we've done, we've started to demonstrate that there is a scope application with the fabs themselves—that was the Intel contract for their own internal use.
There is, of course, an expanding capability at the equipment vendors because we are demonstrating that it is becoming a standard that you can count on most places. And we're extending it into the back end because the production is getting more complex. We think, as I said in my prepared remarks, ultimately more and more of that activity on the SecureWise network will just be agents. It won't necessarily be humans. Already the majority of the revenue comes from data transmission across the network, which is really a key part of the AI pipeline.
So how much bigger? We think it can grow at least at the company growth rate over these next few years. At least at that level.
Blair Abernethy, Analyst at Rosenblatt Securities
Okay, great. And then just turning over to the DFI, just maybe talk about the pipeline there, how it's shifted, and there's an eval, you said, in one of the machines that was shipped this quarter. How are you thinking about the ramp there in terms of getting to contracted revenue?
John K. Kibarian, President and CEO
Yeah. So I think we've had a very good dialogue with that customer. We know what kinds of things they want to see the machine do. They selected the machine because they thought it had some very unique capability. This is getting us into the memory market, which is an important step—expansion into the more mature nodes, expansion to memory. We'll look at geographic expansion as we get further through this year, early next year. You know, so how quickly it converts—I think, you know, these things typically take, you know, close to a year to convert.
So I'm not going to go and speculate on when it will convert, or if it will convert. But we do see this as an important beachhead for us.
Blair Abernethy, Analyst at Rosenblatt Securities
Okay. And then in terms of your capex, Adnan, I wonder if you—I didn't catch all of that. Did you say that you sort of felt that the run rate we're seeing for Q2 is going to be the average for the year? Is that—
Adnan Raza, CFO and EVP Finance
Yeah, let me clarify that. So, two comments, two parts. One, that we expect for Q3 and Q4 the capex to incrementally be higher compared to where it was for Q2. And then when you look at the whole-year capex and just look at an average quarterly amount, the math would say it's similar to where we were in Q2 of this year. So net-net, spending a little bit more. But I think the key thing to take away is, look, with the strength of bookings, with the strength in the business, even with this capex, we're looking to grow cash from the levels of Q2.
So that's something we feel good about.
OPERATOR
Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, that's star 11 to ask a question. Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Kristen Schwab with Craig-Hallum. Your line is open.
Ben, Analyst at Craig-Hallum
Hey, guys, it's Ben. It's Ben, on for Kristen here. A lot of my questions were answered, but just one on the eProbe is, you know, we're on target to hit six this year, it seems like. Is there—what's the visibility looking like into '27 and, you know, could we ship, you know, another six, or, you know, how can I kind of think about that?
John K. Kibarian, President and CEO
Yeah, well, it's a little—I mean, we are having dialogues with customers about that now, Ben. I don't know that we're ready to go and communicate what we think 2027 would look like. We have been working with our supply chain to both optimize time that it takes to bring things up so we have more flexibility. Capacity we feel pretty good about. We think that they're able to build at a level higher than this. So we feel like we're not limited from a capacity standpoint yet.
And a little bit on supply, the biggest issue has just been around timeline and supply chain. We alluded to costs, particularly around the computing element of the solution, keep going up on the computing side. So we're doing some things there around how do we drive our cost to be a little bit more effective given where memory prices are going and other things like that. So hopefully by later this year, we'll be able to communicate our targets for 2027 in terms of what we think production will be.
But there's potential that we could produce more if we needed to, for sure. There's the leverage there.
Ben, Analyst at Craig-Hallum
Perfect. That's all I got. Thanks, guys.
OPERATOR
Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, that's star 11 to ask a question. At this time, there are no more questions. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the program. Thank you for joining us on today's call. You may now disconnect.
Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.
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