AIXTRON SE (FSE: AIXA, ISIN DE000A0WMPJ6) announced an increase in its guidance for fiscal year 2026, citing stronger-than-expected demand for optoelectronics equipment in the first quarter. The company reported preliminary order intake for Q1 2026 of approximately EUR 171 million, a 30% year-over-year increase from EUR 132.2 million in Q1 2025, with over 65% of equipment orders coming from the optoelectronics segment.
Preliminary revenues for the quarter were approximately EUR 59 million, within the guided range of EUR 65 million plus/minus EUR 10 million, but down from EUR 112.5 million in the prior year. Gross profit was negatively impacted by a mid-single-digit million euro one-off charge related to personnel measures, resulting in preliminary gross profit of about EUR 11 million (margin of 18%) compared to EUR 34.1 million (margin of 30%) in Q1 2025. The preliminary operating result (EBIT) was approximately EUR –22 million (margin of -38%), versus EUR 3.3 million (margin of 3%) a year earlier. Besides the one-off expenses, the low margins were attributed to negative operating leverage from low volume.
Despite the weak profitability, cash flow remained positive, with preliminary cash and cash equivalents (including other current financial assets) rising to approximately EUR 273 million at quarter-end, up from EUR 224.6 million on December 31, 2025.
Based on current market developments and an exchange rate assumption of 1.20 USD/EUR, AIXTRON raised its full-year 2026 guidance. The company now expects revenues of around EUR 560 million in a range of plus/minus EUR 30 million, up from the previous guidance of EUR 520 million plus/minus EUR 30 million. The EBIT margin is forecast to be between 17% and 20%, compared to the prior range of 16% to 19%. Gross margin is expected to be around 42%, versus the earlier estimate of 41% to 42%.
Dr. Felix Grawert, CEO of AIXTRON SE, commented: "The significantly stronger-than-expected demand from the Optoelectronics sector in the first quarter is a very encouraging development. We expect this trend to continue and have therefore raised our guidance for the year. With our G10-AsP system, we have the tool of record for the next generation of photonic components, which are the basis for chip-to-chip, rack-to-rack and datacenter-to-datacenter communications in the AI era."
The full report for the first quarter of 2026 will be published as planned on April 30, 2026. For further information on AIXTRON (FSE: AIXA, ISIN DE000A0WMPJ6), please visit the company's website at www.aixtron.com.
