On Tuesday, Degroof Petercam reiterated its buy recommendation on X-Fab, but lowered its price target from 12 to 10 euros in view of the "transition" year ahead for 2024.
The Belgian investment house expects the foundry's growth to slow this year, due to the destocking movement affecting the market and the intensification of its investments.
While this outlook has led Degroof Petercam to revise its sales and earnings forecasts for 2024 and beyond downwards, it stresses that this spending should ultimately support growth and margins in the medium and long term.
In its view, the main catalyst for the Group's growth remains the rise of semiconductors in the automotive sector, which accounts for around 60% of the company's sales, driven in particular by electrification, autonomous driving and vehicle personalization.
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X-FAB Silicon Foundries SE is a specialty foundry group with expertise in analog/mixed-signal IC production, MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) and SiC (silicon carbide) focusing on high-growth automotive, industrial, and medical end markets with long lifecycles. Its customers worldwide benefit from the highest quality standards, strong design support, manufacturing excellence, and innovative solutions.
At the end of 2023, the group operates 6 wafer fab facilities located in Germany (3), France, Malaysia, and the United States and has about 4,500 employees worldwide.
Net sales by activity break down between sale of semiconductor wafers (88%) and technology services (12%).
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Belgium (44.4%), Germany (9.7%), the United Kingdom (6.5%), Europe (5.1%), the United States (10.6%), China (9.9%), Japan (4.5%), Malaysia (2%), Asia (7.1%) and other (0.2%).
X-FAB SILICON FOUNDRIES SE 
