On this page of StockholderLetter.com we present the latest annual shareholder letter from KULICKE & SOFFA INDUSTRIES INC — ticker symbol KLIC. Reading current and past KLIC letters to shareholders can bring important insights into the investment thesis.
2024 Annual Report
Vision
To provide leading assembly technologies and
services enabling a smart future.
Company
Founded in 1951, Kulicke & Soffa specializes
in developing cutting-edge semiconductor
and electronics assembly solutions enabling
a smart and more sustainable future. Our
ever-growing range of products and services
supports growth and facilitates technology
transitions across large-scale markets,
such as advanced display, automotive,
communications, compute, consumer, data
storage, energy storage and industrial. Kulicke
& Soffa is headquartered in Pennsylvania and
Singapore.
Fellow Shareholders:
Our ongoing strategy of
expanding competencies
and market access through
organic and inorganic
development is driving
adoption of our new solutions.
Technology changes in the
semiconductor, display as well
as automotive and industrial
markets are now providing
K&S with new paths for
value creation.
These paths are securing our position to support
a broad global customer base and are providing
branches of new opportunities. Our position to create
value through these technology transitions continues
to accelerate and we have demonstrated a prudent
and consistent approach to delivering returns to our
shareholder base.
Over the past seven decades, K&S has experienced a
variety of industry changes. Today, we are in a unique
position to address several new technology-driven
industry changes in parallel. These innovations are
providing new opportunities across the semiconductor,
display, automotive and industrial markets.
Within the broad semiconductor space, we continue
to take share at the leading-edge as adoption for
chiplet, heterogeneous and multi-die packages is rising.
Historically, the benefits and cadence of lithographydriven transistor shrink had delayed the need for new
semiconductor assembly solutions. Today, growing
adoption of More than Moore solutions is directly
benefiting our business. New assembly formats
supported by our Advanced Packaging solutions,
are increasingly necessary to address this industry
challenge. Our value add is evident with innovations
such as Fluxless Thermo-Compression (FTC) and
CuFirst hybrid bonding, which have supported ThermoCompression revenue growth of ten times over the
prior four years. In addition to Thermo-Compression,
emerging vertical wire techniques, such as Vertical-FanOut are also supporting new forms of stacked-memory
and provide a technology pathway for other highvolume applications. We are excited to support these
emerging trends in our core semiconductor market
and anticipate this shifting value will result in an aboveaverage long-term growth rate for our broad portfolio
of semiconductor assembly solutions.
Within the display market, we are also committed to
delivering ongoing innovations as the world begins to
adopt mini-LED technology for advanced backlighting
and large-format, direct-emissive displays. Despite
known challenges in micro-LED technology, miniLED technology is a market-ready solution capable of
enhancing performance and power efficiency. This miniLED opportunity is being supported by LUMINEXTM, our
ultra-high-speed and high-accuracy placement system,
capable of individual and mass transfer of integrated
circuits and LEDs. We were pleased to successfully
recognize revenue for a LUMINEX TM system in our fourth
fiscal quarter 2024 and look forward to additional
success in fiscal 2025.
Last, within the automotive and industrial end-market,
several changes including the proliferation of ADAS,
growth of electric vehicles, build-out of charging
infrastructure, and requirements for more sustainably
generated electricity are increasing the growth
potential for both new and existing solutions. Our
high-power interconnect solutions in wedge bonding,
as well as our recent win in advanced dispense, are
enabling higher-performance battery assembly and
more efficient power semiconductors. Towards the
end of 2024, we recognized advanced dispense
revenue associated with an exciting solid-state battery
opportunity. This win provides another example on how
we are expanding on our existing cylindrical battery
assembly competencies and broadening market access
through new technology adoption.
This funnel of opportunities is enabled through
close collaborations with customers, universities and
consortiums and ensures our business remains nimble,
flexible, growth-oriented, and best positioned to create
long-term shareholder value in the markets we serve.
Based on this strategy, we have continued to prudently
deliver capital directly through a competitive dividend
yield, annual dividend raises and by cumulatively
deploying over $900 million in open and accelerated
repurchase activity since August of 2014. Our fifth
consecutive dividend raise as well as a new $300 million
repurchase program authorization were announced in
November 2024. The consistency and continuity of our
dividend program provides long-term shareholders with
a competitive dividend yield and income stream for
their support.
We are increasingly at the forefront of long-term, secular
technology change. As we prepare for core Ball and
Wedge demand to recover during fiscal 2025, we also
look forward to building out our foundations across new
and exciting market areas. We have strengthened our
long-term growth opportunities by focusing on research
and development, collaborating closely with customer
and industry partners, and delivering new market-ready,
highly capable solutions. The foundation for this strategy
- a commitment to R&D, engaged relationships and
motivated global employees     has only strengthened
over recent years, creating a robust platform for growth.
This is evident in our ability to expand market access
and continuously provide technology breakthroughs
on an industrial level. I would like to thank our global
customers, external partners as well as our dedicated,
performance-oriented group of employees for unlocking
this next phase of corporate growth.
Thank you,
FUSEN E. CHEN
President & Chief Executive Officer
 • shareholder letter icon 1/15/2025 Letter Continued (Full PDF)
 • stockholder letter icon 1/19/2023 KLIC Stockholder Letter
 • stockholder letter icon 1/22/2024 KLIC Stockholder Letter
 • stockholder letter icon More "Semiconductors" Category Stockholder Letters
 • Benford's Law Stocks icon KLIC Benford's Law Stock Score = 82


KLIC Shareholder/Stockholder Letter Transcript:

2024 Annual Report

Vision
To provide leading assembly technologies and
services enabling a smart future.
Company
Founded in 1951, Kulicke & Soffa specializes
in developing cutting-edge semiconductor
and electronics assembly solutions enabling
a smart and more sustainable future. Our
ever-growing range of products and services
supports growth and facilitates technology
transitions across large-scale markets,
such as advanced display, automotive,
communications, compute, consumer, data
storage, energy storage and industrial. Kulicke
& Soffa is headquartered in Pennsylvania and
Singapore.

Fellow Shareholders:
Our ongoing strategy of
expanding competencies
and market access through
organic and inorganic
development is driving
adoption of our new solutions.
Technology changes in the
semiconductor, display as well
as automotive and industrial
markets are now providing
K&S with new paths for
value creation.
These paths are securing our position to support
a broad global customer base and are providing
branches of new opportunities. Our position to create
value through these technology transitions continues
to accelerate and we have demonstrated a prudent
and consistent approach to delivering returns to our
shareholder base.
Over the past seven decades, K&S has experienced a
variety of industry changes. Today, we are in a unique
position to address several new technology-driven
industry changes in parallel. These innovations are
providing new opportunities across the semiconductor,
display, automotive and industrial markets.
Within the broad semiconductor space, we continue
to take share at the leading-edge as adoption for
chiplet, heterogeneous and multi-die packages is rising.
Historically, the benefits and cadence of lithographydriven transistor shrink had delayed the need for new
semiconductor assembly solutions. Today, growing
adoption of More than Moore solutions is directly
benefiting our business. New assembly formats
supported by our Advanced Packaging solutions,
are increasingly necessary to address this industry
challenge. Our value add is evident with innovations
such as Fluxless Thermo-Compression (FTC) and
CuFirst hybrid bonding, which have supported ThermoCompression revenue growth of ten times over the
prior four years. In addition to Thermo-Compression,
emerging vertical wire techniques, such as Vertical-FanOut are also supporting new forms of stacked-memory
and provide a technology pathway for other highvolume applications. We are excited to support these
emerging trends in our core semiconductor market
and anticipate this shifting value will result in an aboveaverage long-term growth rate for our broad portfolio
of semiconductor assembly solutions.

Within the display market, we are also committed to
delivering ongoing innovations as the world begins to
adopt mini-LED technology for advanced backlighting
and large-format, direct-emissive displays. Despite
known challenges in micro-LED technology, miniLED technology is a market-ready solution capable of
enhancing performance and power efficiency. This miniLED opportunity is being supported by LUMINEXTM, our
ultra-high-speed and high-accuracy placement system,
capable of individual and mass transfer of integrated
circuits and LEDs. We were pleased to successfully
recognize revenue for a LUMINEX TM system in our fourth
fiscal quarter 2024 and look forward to additional
success in fiscal 2025.
Last, within the automotive and industrial end-market,
several changes including the proliferation of ADAS,
growth of electric vehicles, build-out of charging
infrastructure, and requirements for more sustainably
generated electricity are increasing the growth
potential for both new and existing solutions. Our
high-power interconnect solutions in wedge bonding,
as well as our recent win in advanced dispense, are
enabling higher-performance battery assembly and
more efficient power semiconductors. Towards the
end of 2024, we recognized advanced dispense
revenue associated with an exciting solid-state battery
opportunity. This win provides another example on how
we are expanding on our existing cylindrical battery
assembly competencies and broadening market access
through new technology adoption.
This funnel of opportunities is enabled through
close collaborations with customers, universities and
consortiums and ensures our business remains nimble,
flexible, growth-oriented, and best positioned to create
long-term shareholder value in the markets we serve.
Based on this strategy, we have continued to prudently
deliver capital directly through a competitive dividend
yield, annual dividend raises and by cumulatively
deploying over $900 million in open and accelerated
repurchase activity since August of 2014. Our fifth
consecutive dividend raise as well as a new $300 million
repurchase program authorization were announced in
November 2024. The consistency and continuity of our
dividend program provides long-term shareholders with
a competitive dividend yield and income stream for
their support.
We are increasingly at the forefront of long-term, secular
technology change. As we prepare for core Ball and
Wedge demand to recover during fiscal 2025, we also
look forward to building out our foundations across new
and exciting market areas. We have strengthened our
long-term growth opportunities by focusing on research
and development, collaborating closely with customer
and industry partners, and delivering new market-ready,
highly capable solutions. The foundation for this strategy
- a commitment to R&D, engaged relationships and
motivated global employees     has only strengthened
over recent years, creating a robust platform for growth.
This is evident in our ability to expand market access
and continuously provide technology breakthroughs
on an industrial level. I would like to thank our global
customers, external partners as well as our dedicated,
performance-oriented group of employees for unlocking
this next phase of corporate growth.
Thank you,
FUSEN E. CHEN
President & Chief Executive Officer



shareholder letter icon 1/15/2025 Letter Continued (Full PDF)
 

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