- Analysts slashed their price targets on Universal Display Corp (NASDAQ:OLED) following Q4 results.
- Deutsche Bank analyst Sidney Ho lowered the price target to $180 from $240 (20% upside) and kept a Buy.
- Although the company's 2022 outlook was below expectations, the announcement of phosphorescent Blue being ready for commercialization by 2024 is the main takeaway from earnings.
- He believes this announcement "greatly reduces the bear thesis" for Universal Display that a competing technology would replace phosphorescent Blue before Blue is ready for commercialization.
- Needham analyst James Ricchiuti lowered the price target to $195 from $245 (30% upside) after its Q4 earnings miss but kept a Buy.
- R&D is scaling higher as the company advances the latter development of its blue emission system. The following two years will be strong ones as it benefits from the OLED capacity build-out in China and the market's ongoing growth.
- Ricchiuti remains positive on Universal Display as the only pure-play in the OLED display market, stating that it is well-situated to benefit from the ongoing transition from LCD displays in the mobile market to OLED smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
- Cowen analyst Krish Sankar lowered the price target to $175 from $225 (17% upside) and kept an Outperform.
- The analyst said the December quarter sales were in line, but earnings were below consensus due to higher SG&A.
- He said fundamentals remain steady, and the big incremental positive was detail on the Blue emitter and its commercial readiness in CY24.
- Price Action: OLED shares traded higher by 12.4% at $149.59 on the last check Thursday.
