What happened with UCTT today?
No read yet
Uses news and trading volume to explain the day’s move and how it relates to the market.
Stop guessing. Get the call, a three-month target price, the best and worst cases, and a source for every claim.
Semiconductor-equipment makers pay Ultra Clean Holdings to build assemblies that go into their machines, such as systems that deliver gases and liquids during chip production. The company works from customer specifications or helps design the assemblies, then manufactures and tests them. This Products business brings in most of its revenue.
Its smaller Services business earns fees from chipmakers and equipment companies for cleaning and recoating parts used inside processing chambers, extending their usable life, and analyzing minute contamination that can affect chip production.
Lam Research and Applied Materials together supply most of the company’s revenue. Business depends heavily on chipmakers’ spending on manufacturing equipment, while most equipment customers have no contractual obligation to keep ordering. Cleaning, coating and analytical services are less exposed to that spending cycle. U.S. export controls also restrict certain semiconductor goods and technologies sold to China; required licenses can be difficult to obtain, limiting the company’s and its customers’ ability to supply that market.
The risk section is the longest, dullest part of the filing. This keeps only what can really hurt you: where it hits, how hard, when it plays out.
Every company claims an edge. Each one is checked against hard numbers like margins and returns: which hold, and which line gives way first.
Ultra Clean depends heavily on Lam Research, which buys its equipment parts and subsystems and accounted for 37.0% of its revenue in the year ended December 26, 2025. Lam sells chipmaking equipment to memory makers, foundries and integrated chip manufacturers; its equipment sales to those customers are a key demand signal for Ultra Clean.
Ichor Holdings competes with Ultra Clean to sell systems that deliver gases and chemicals inside chipmaking equipment, and both rely heavily on Lam Research and Applied Materials. Those two equipment makers supplied 76% of Ichor’s fiscal 2025 sales, making its fluid-delivery sales a useful window on demand from their shared customers.
Applied Materials buys Ultra Clean’s equipment parts and subsystems and accounted for 21.7% of its revenue in the year ended December 26, 2025. Applied sells wafer-fabrication equipment to chipmakers; its Semiconductor Systems revenue is the line to watch for demand relevant to Ultra Clean.
Semiconductor equipment orders matter to both MKS and Ultra Clean: MKS sells instruments and subsystems used in chip production, while Ultra Clean supplies equipment makers with parts and subsystems. Watch MKS’s semiconductor business rather than its electronics, packaging or specialty-industrial demand.
Benchmark Electronics competes with Ultra Clean for critical semiconductor-equipment subsystems, earning money from equipment makers for design and manufacturing work. Its semiconductor capital-equipment sales—not its other manufacturing markets—are the relevant comparison; they represented 28% of sales in the year ended December 31, 2025.
Enpro competes for the same semiconductor customers’ spending as Ultra Clean’s Services business by cleaning and coating parts used in chipmaking tools. Its news about tool-part cleaning and coating is more relevant to Ultra Clean than its separate sealing-products business.
ASML is a paying customer of Ultra Clean and represented more than 10% of its gross accounts receivable at December 27, 2024—a measure of unpaid bills, not revenue share. ASML sells chipmakers equipment that prints patterns on silicon, so its lithography-equipment business is the relevant customer activity to follow.
Entegris and Ultra Clean both serve demand for clean, controlled wafer production: Entegris sells chipmakers products that purify and manage gases and liquids, while Ultra Clean supplies fluid-delivery subsystems and chamber-part cleaning. Entegris’s Advanced Purity Solutions business is the closest read on that shared demand.
Chipmakers’ equipment budgets influence both KLA and Ultra Clean: KLA sells equipment that controls semiconductor production processes, while Ultra Clean sells parts and subsystems to fabrication-equipment makers. KLA’s Semiconductor Process Control business is the relevant line to follow for that shared spending.
Lam Research Corp earningsLRCX
Lam Research's report will show whether chipmakers are still buying the equipment that drives demand for Ultra Clean's parts and subsystems; Lam accounted for 37.0% of Ultra Clean's revenue in fiscal 2025.
Treat Lam's semiconductor-equipment sales and outlook as a signal of chipmaker buying, then compare their direction with Ultra Clean's Products revenue. Stronger Lam sales alongside steady or rising Ultra Clean Products revenue would show shared equipment demand supporting Ultra Clean's business; weakness at Lam would put more pressure on an important source of Ultra Clean's revenue.
Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. earningsThis company
Ultra Clean's report will show whether equipment makers are buying more of its custom subsystems and whether its cleaning services are turning revenue into profit.
Start with Products revenue and gross margin—the share of revenue left after direct production costs. Revenue rising with a steady or improving margin would suggest demand and product mix or cost control are supporting one another; falling revenue with a shrinking margin would show lower volume and costs still squeezing profit. Then check whether Services revenue grows without its margin weakening further: that shows whether demand for cleaning services is translating into profit.
Ichor Holdings earningsICHR
Ichor Holdings' report will show how demand for gas- and chemical-delivery systems inside chipmaking equipment is changing; it competes with Ultra Clean in this business and also depends on their shared customers, Lam Research and Applied Materials.
Read Ichor's fluid-delivery performance alongside the direction of Ultra Clean's Products revenue. Strength in both would suggest shared customers are buying more of this kind of equipment subsystem; Ichor strengthening while Ultra Clean Products weakens would raise the possibility of company-specific order or competitive pressure, but the two reports alone would not prove a shift in market share.
Enpro Inc. earningsNPO
Enpro's report will show how demand for cleaning and coating semiconductor-tool parts is changing, a market where it competes with Ultra Clean's Services business.
Watch Enpro's comments on demand for semiconductor-tool-part cleaning and coating, and compare them with Ultra Clean's Services revenue and gross margin. Strength in both businesses would suggest customer demand is supporting growth; weakness in both would point to tighter customer spending. If they diverge, customer choices and Ultra Clean's own competitive position become the question.
