Raising ASM's Fair Value Estimate to EUR 520 After Increased Guidance
ASM International is a niche provider of wafer fab equipment. The firm has carved out a narrow moat and a solid competitive position in the semiconductor deposition market, more concretely in atomic layer deposition, or ALD, despite lacking the product breadth and scale of other wafer fab equipment providers like Applied Materials or Lam Research. ASM has done this through more than two decades of research and development, which is now paying off as semiconductor transistors keep shrinking and require more atomic layers. ASM’s management knows the deposition market is its strength and has made clear the firm will continue reinvesting in it, both through R&D and mergers and acquisitions, and stay away from other areas where the firm might lack competitive advantages.