Cohu, Inc. (COHU) DCF Valuation & Fundamental Primer
Cohu, Inc. (COHU) currently trades at $25.10 with an enterprise value of $1.12B. Our proprietary institutional model rates Cohu, Inc. at 88/100 (Grade: A+ · Elite SaaS Compounder). The current market price prices in an implied 5-year revenue CAGR of 17.8% vs. historical growth of 19.1% (Fairly Priced to Fundamentals).
Institutional fundamental teardown of Cohu, Inc. (COHU) covering SEC 10-K/10-Q cash flow conversion, SBC dilution friction, and Reverse-DCF valuation hurdles.
Cohu, Inc. (COHU) 3-Scenario DCF Valuation Range
Stress-test COHU's 5-year growth, target FCF margin, WACC, terminal methodology, and SBC/dilution friction in real time.
Split between 5-Year Explicit Cash Flows and Discounted Terminal Value
2D Institutional Valuation Sensitivity Heatmap
Implied share price & upside/downside spread across 25 valuation states (Current Price: $25.10).
| WACC \ Terminal | 1.5% | 2.0% | 2.5% | 3.0% | 3.5% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.5% | $29.04 +16% | $30.75 +23% | $32.74 +30% | $35.10 +40% | $37.92 +51% |
| 9.3% | $26.27 +5% | $27.61 +10% | $29.16 +16% | $30.95 +23% | $33.05 +32% |
| 10.0% | $23.99 -4% | $25.07 -0% | $26.30 +5% | $27.70 +10% | $29.31 +17% |
| 10.8% | $22.08 -12% | $22.97 -9% | $23.96 -5% | $25.08 -0% | $26.35 +5% |
| 11.5% | $20.46 -18% | $21.20 -16% | $22.01 -12% | $22.92 -9% | $23.95 -5% |
Institutional Software Quality Scorecard (88/100 · Grade A+)
Exceptional unit economics, disciplined equity dilution, and fortress balance sheet.
Elite deferred revenue float; FCF exceeds operating income by >20%
Standard software SBC dilution; modest equity transfer to employees
Elite Tier-1 SaaS compounder with high gross margin and superior Rule of 40
Positive net cash cushion; self-funding operations with zero insolvency risk
Core Investment Strengths & Moats
- High-grade cash conversion: FCF is 5550% of EBIT driven by upfront annual collections
- Top-quartile software unit economics: 76.6% gross margin and 41.3% Rule of 40 score
- Net cash positive: $106.4M balance sheet buffer
Key Operational & Dilution Risks
Reverse-DCF Solver: What Growth is Priced Into COHU?
Market implies 17.8% annual revenue growth over next 5 years (29.7% dilution-adjusted), in line with company run-rate.
Headline Reverse-DCF ignores Stock-Based Compensation (13.0% of revenue) and annual share dilution (1.8%/yr). Accounting for both requires 29.7% 5-year revenue CAGR to justify $25.10/sh on a true per-share economic cash flow basis.
Cohu, Inc. (COHU) 5-Year Fundamental Forecast
| Statement Line Item | TTM Audited Base | TTM | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $189.0M | $189.0M | $225.1M | $268.1M | $319.3M | $380.3M | $453.0M |
| Gross Profit | $144.8M | $144.8M | $172.4M | $205.4M | $244.6M | $291.3M | $347.0M |
| Operating Income (EBIT) | $756.1K | $756.1K | $900.5K | $1.1M | $1.3M | $1.5M | $1.8M |
| Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) | $24.6M | $24.6M | $29.3M | $34.9M | $41.5M | $49.4M | $58.9M |
| Unlevered Free Cash Flow (FCF) | $42.0M | $42.0M | $50.0M | $59.5M | $70.9M | $84.4M | $100.6M |
| SBC-Adjusted True Cash Flow | $17.4M | $17.4M | $20.7M | $24.7M | $29.4M | $35.0M | $41.7M |
Software & Cloud Services Peer Comparables & Rule of 40 Regression
Rule of 40 vs. EV / Revenue Multiple Regression
OLS Fit: EV/Rev = -26.9 + 0.76 × (Rule of 40) · R² = 81%Stocks below the gold regression line trade at a discount relative to their Rule of 40 compounding efficiency.
| Company | Ticker | Market Cap | TTM Revenue | Gross Margin | FCF Margin | Rule of 40 | SBC % Rev | EV / Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cohu, Inc. | COHU | $1.17B | $189.0M | 76.6% | 22.2% | 41.3% | 13.0% | 5.6× |
| ServiceNow | NOW | $152.61B | $10.98B | 79.2% | 31.1% | 54.2% | 15.9% | 13.9× |
| Workday, Inc. | WDAY | $50.35B | $8.00B | 75.0% | 27.4% | 43.9% | 19.0% | 6.4× |
| Salesforce | CRM | $217.10B | $37.90B | 77.2% | 32.8% | 42.8% | 8.4% | 5.8× |
| Datadog | DDOG | $46.05B | $2.68B | 80.8% | 31.1% | 57.7% | 21.3% | 17.4× |
| Snowflake Inc. | SNOW | $71.79B | $3.63B | 66.5% | 25.2% | 57.7% | 40.8% | 20.0× |
| Hubspot | HUBS | $19.89B | $2.63B | 85.0% | 21.3% | 52.7% | 19.2% | 7.7× |
| Peer Cohort Median Benchmark (N=6) | 78.2% | 29.2% | 53.5% | 19.1% | 10.8× | |||
EV / Revenue Multiple Compression Stress Test
| Multiple Scenario | EV / Revenue | Implied Enterprise Value | Implied Equity Value | Implied Share Price | Delta vs Current |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current Multiple | 5.6× | $1.07B | $1.17B | $25.10 | 0.0% |
| -20% Multiple Compression | 4.5× | $852.4M | $958.8M | $20.54 | -20.0% |
| -35% Multiple Compression | 3.7× | $692.6M | $799.0M | $17.11 | -35.0% |
| Software Baseline Floor (5.0× EV/Rev) | 5.0× | $945.1M | $1.05B | $22.52 | -11.3% |
Frequently Asked Questions: Cohu, Inc. (COHU) Valuation
What is Cohu, Inc. (COHU)'s intrinsic DCF valuation and implied share price?
Based on audited SEC 10-K/10-Q filings and a 5-year 3-statement discounted cash flow (DCF) model, Cohu, Inc. (COHU) has a Base Case implied value of $26.30 per share (with a Bear Case of $12.83 and a Bull Case of $44.77), compared to its current price of $25.10. The model discounts projected free cash flows at a 10.0% WACC and a 2.5% terminal growth rate.
What is Cohu, Inc. (COHU)'s Rule of 40 score and Free Cash Flow margin?
Cohu, Inc. achieves a Rule of 40 score of 41.3%, combining a 19.1% revenue growth run-rate with a 22.2% TTM free cash flow margin on $189.0M in trailing twelve-month revenue. In the Software & Cloud Services peer cohort, the median Rule of 40 benchmark is 53.5%.
What revenue growth rate is priced into COHU stock according to Reverse-DCF analysis?
At $25.10 per share (Enterprise Value of $1.07B), our Reverse-DCF solver indicates the market is pricing in a 5-year implied revenue CAGR of 17.8%, compared to Cohu, Inc.'s historical CAGR of 19.1%. Overall market expectations are rated as "Fairly Priced to Fundamentals".
How does Cohu, Inc. compare to Software & Cloud Services software peers?
Cohu, Inc. (COHU) earns an institutional Software Quality Score of 88/100 (Grade A+ — Elite SaaS Compounder). Across its Software & Cloud Services peer group (NOW, WDAY, CRM, DDOG, SNOW), the cohort trades at a median EV/TTM Revenue multiple of 10.8× and a median gross margin of 78.2%.
How does Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) impact Cohu, Inc. (COHU)'s valuation?
Cohu, Inc. recorded $24.6M in TTM stock-based compensation (13.0% of revenue). When treating SBC as a cash-equivalent compensation expense, Cohu, Inc.'s SBC-adjusted free cash flow yield is 1.5%, scoring 16/25 on our Shareholder Dilution Friction pillar.
