FormFactor (FORM) Shares Scale 52-Week High Of $9.58

Shares of technology company FormFactor Inc. (NASDAQ:FORM) hit a new 52-week high of $9.58 on Jul 8, eventually closing at $9.55. The company has returned 10.53% in a year and 6.11% year to date. Average volume of shares traded over the last three months was roughly 353K.

FormFactor Bullish on Probe Card, SoC & DRAM

FormFactor is one of the world's foremost providers of vital wafer test technologies and proficiency, with a broad portfolio of high-performance probe cards for DRAM, Flash and SoC devices. With the NAND Flash market expanding rapidly, demand for probe card is also growing, and will benefit FormFactor going forward.

The company’s strong momentum in the SoC business with escalating customer attention toward its product solutions, mainly driven by mobile, industrial and automotive applications, should remain a solid growth catalyst.

FormFactor has a diversified business, both in terms of products offered and geographical presence. It has a leading position in the semiconductor testing market. The recent closure of Oregon-based Cascade Microtech will further help FormFactor to expand into the semiconductor testing space by leveraging its resources to expand in newer markets.

The combined entity is likely to achieve significant cost and revenue synergies supported by the expanded product portfolio, a bigger customer base and better infrastructure. In fact, the merger is expected to be immediately accretive to gross margins, profits and earnings per share. Management expects its addressable market opportunity to expand 40% to $1.4 billion from $1 billion by opening new engineering systems, thereby expanding the test and measurement businesses.

On the cost and efficiency front, the company is focusing on arranging its resources and investments more broadly across the SoC, DRAM and Flash probe card markets. This is helping it to contain its costs better while targeting growth opportunities across markets. Also, FormFactor’s solid execution is helping it to gain share and spread the addressable market footprint.

FormFactor’s strong revenue growth, solid financial conditions, increasing market share due to solid execution and strong long-term growth potential position it favorably.

Moreover, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2015 earnings represents a 30.01% surge from the prior-year figure. The stock also delivered an average positive earnings surprise of nearly 46.25% over the trailing four quarters. This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock has a market cap of approximately $667.2 million and a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 12%.

The company is slated to report second-quarter 2016 results on Aug 3.

Stocks to Consider

Some well-placed stocks in the technology space include On Track Innovations Ltd. (NASDAQ:OTIV) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (NYSE:SMI) sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) , carrying a Zacks Rank #2.