Kulicke & Soffa jumps; activist discloses stake, calls for buyback
Apr. 22, 2014 4:56 PM ETKulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. (KLIC)KLICBy: Eric Jhonsa, SA News Editor
- Lemelson Capital says it has bought 368.4K Kulicke & Soffa (KLIC +6.6%) shares over the last 14 months (less than a 1% stake), and calls on the chip equipment maker to launch a major buyback program.
- Lemelson notes Kulicke has $556M in cash/equivalents (some of it offshore), and averaged $131M in annual free cash flow from 2010-2013. The firm estimates a $250M buyback at $12/share would boost EPS by 38%.
- Barron's called Kulicke "a company that looks ripe for an activist investor" last October, given its huge cash balance and lack of a dividend or buyback plan. Kulicke has argued in the past it needs to keep its cash in case M&A opportunities emerged.
- Share are up another 1.2% AH.