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what it is
Ultra Clean makes chipmaking parts and cleans high-purity equipment that semiconductor factories need to keep running.
how it gets paid
FY 2025 revenue ~$2.05B (slightly below FY 2024 in the release). Segment splits below are illustrative— Q4 2025 was ~$507M total (~$442M products + ~$64M services).
what just happened
The quarter was a shrug: $0.22 EPS matched estimates, while the bigger story stayed the same: 2025 was weak.
At a glance
B balance sheet — gets the job done, barely
30/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
GAAP FY25 loss— do not trust trailing P/E without adjusting
8.0% return on capital — nothing to write home about
xvary composite: 62/100 — average
What they do
Ultra Clean makes chipmaking parts and cleans high-purity equipment that semiconductor factories need to keep running.
This business sits inside the semiconductor plumbing. If you are Applied Materials or Lam Research, you do not swap out a contamination-sensitive supplier casually when downtime costs real money. That helps explain why just two customers made up 58.7% of 2025 revenue, even after a rough year.
How they make money
~$2.05B
FY 2025 revenue (release)
Subsystems
$0.72B
Components and parts
$0.62B
Ultra-high purity cleaning
$0.42B
Analytical services
$0.30B
The products that matter
builds subsystems and components
Subsystems and components
part of ~$2.05B FY revenue
This is the hardware side of the business. The exact split is not provided in this snapshot, which means you should treat it as part of the full $2.1B semiconductor exposure rather than a separate growth engine.
equipment-linked
cleans and analyzes high-purity parts
Ultra-high-purity cleaning and analytical services
part of ~$2.05B FY revenue
The service layer matters because fabs cannot tolerate contamination. But the snapshot gives no stand-alone revenue number, so you should not pretend this segment alone carries the thesis.
service layer
Key numbers
16%
debt load
Long-term debt is 16% of capital, or plain English, borrowed money is present but not crushing. So what: you have some balance-sheet cushion, but not enough to ignore a semiconductor slump.
58.7%
top customers
Applied Materials and Lam Research drove 58.7% of 2025 revenue. Plain English: two companies hold the steering wheel.
~$1.05
FY25 non-GAAP EPS
GAAP FY25 was a large loss on impairment— non-GAAP ~$1.05 is the metric management and many screens use for the operating year.
8.0%
return on capital
Return on capital was 8.0%. Plain English: every $1 invested in the business produced $0.08 before financing effects, which is okay, not elite.
Financial health
B
strength
- balance sheet grade B — adequate — nothing special
- risk rank 4 — safer than 20% of stocks
- price stability 10 / 100
- long-term debt $467M (16% of capital)
- net profit margin 3.9% — keeps 4 cents of every dollar in revenue
- return on equity 14% — $0.14 profit for every $1 investors have put in
B — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
You invested $10,000 in UCTT 3 years ago → it's now worth $17,030.
The index would have given you $14,540.
source: institutional data · total return
What just happened
met estimates
The quarter was a shrug: $0.22 EPS matched estimates, while the bigger story stayed the same: 2025 was weak.
Q4 2025 GAAP diluted EPS was ~$(0.07) with ~$507M revenue; non-GAAP EPS ~$0.22 matched many estimates (PR Newswire release). FY 2025 GAAP EPS ~(4.00) includes ~$151M goodwill impairment— read the reconciliation tables.
~$507M
Q4 revenue
~$0.22
Q4 non-GAAP EPS
~16%
non-GAAP gross margin
the number that mattered
The number that mattered was 28%: that was the 2025 EPS drop, which tells you this business has far more operating leverage than investors like to admit.
-
ultra clean holdings had a challenging year in 2025.
-
early in the year, a slowdown in the company’s performance in china led to a sharp decline in its share price and sparked litigation alleging that it misled investors about the potential of its ’’china for china’’ strategy.
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shortly afterwards, ceo jim scholhamer resigned, citing his health.the real story, though, beyond the legal issues and the changes in leadership, was the company’s performance, which lagged.
-
revenues fell by 2% from their 2024 mark, while earnings per share fell 28%.
-
the bleeding only seemed to worsen over the course of the year, with fourth-quarter revenues down 10% vs. prior year and earnings per share down 57%.
source: Ultra Clean Q4 / FY 2025 release · PR Newswire
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What could go wrong
the #1 risk is wafer-fab equipment demand cooling before margins recover.
med
semiconductor spending is the whole story here
The company generated ~$2.05B FY revenue from a business aimed primarily at the semiconductor industry. If fab spending slows, there is no second engine in this snapshot to absorb the hit.
Because the revenue base is concentrated in one industry, this risk reaches across essentially the full FY revenue base.
med
thin margins leave little room for mistakes
Gross margin is 15.4%. Operating margin is 6.5%. Net margin is 3.9%. Those are workable numbers, but not forgiving ones.
A modest cost miss can do outsized damage when only about four cents of each revenue dollar becomes profit.
med
the stock already sits above the long-term midpoint target
Shares trade near $52.90 while the 3–5 year target midpoint is $47. That does not kill the upside case, but it does mean part of the recovery narrative is already priced in.
If estimates move down instead of up, any screen multiple based on GAAP losses or noisy years can compress fast.
med
volatility is a feature, not a bug
The stock's 52-week range runs from $17 to $74, and price stability is 10/100. This is what a high-beta cycle name looks like in practice.
Even if the long-term thesis works, you may have to sit through large swings to get paid.
The bull case needs a semiconductor rebound. The bear case already has the math: 58.7% customer concentration and negative operating margin.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
margin checkpoint
gross margin needs to move the right way
Start with 15.4% gross margin. If the cycle is improving but this number is not, the recovery is not flowing through the model.
estimate trend
watch the path to $3B revenue
The fiscal 2027 revenue estimate is $3B. That is the number carrying a lot of the optimism behind today's share price.
valuation gap
the midpoint target is below the stock
Current price is $52.90. The 3–5 year midpoint target is $47. If you want upside from here, the company needs to earn the high-end case closer to $70.
ownership tape
institutional flow needs to stop leaning negative
Last quarter showed 69 buyers and 85 sellers. One quarter is noise. A pattern is information.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
30 / 100
Low predictability score. In human-speak, analysts do not view this as a smooth, easy-to-model earnings story.
risk rank
4
Risk rank 4 means it is safer than only about 20% of stocks. Translation: this is a cyclical name, not a shelter.
price stability
10 / 100
A 10/100 stability score matches the $17–$74 trading range. You should expect movement, not serenity.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
69 buyers vs. 85 sellers in 4q2025. total institutional holdings: 42.5M shares.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
$17
$77
$53
current price
$47
target midpoint · 11% from current · 3-5yr high: $70 (+30% · 7% ann'l return)
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