At a glance
PDF Solutions Inc is worth $1.92B. Revenue grew 22.0% to $219.0M in fiscal 2025, at a loss; over 5 years it has grown 20.0% a year. It pays no dividend; it spent $34.9M buying back its shares over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned +59.2% over the past year with dividends reinvested and +14.5% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 45.2% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 39.3% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high 1 month and 7 months after the lows.
The business in plain English
PDF Solutions sells software, data services and specialized hardware to chip and electronics companies. These help them raise yield (the share of chips on a wafer that work), improve quality and run factories more efficiently. Customers span the chip supply chain. They include foundries (contract chipmakers), companies that design and build their own chips, and fabless designers that outsource manufacturing. Equipment makers and outsourced assembly and test firms are also customers. The company is based in Santa Clara, California, and some customers are Fortune 500 firms.
Its products are grouped under six brands. Exensio is analytics and AI software, sold as a license or as an online service. Sapience links factory, business and design systems. DirectScan is an electron-beam inspection system that looks for defects during production. CV test chips measure how a manufacturing process performs. Cimetrix, acquired in 2020, connects factory equipment. secureWISE, acquired in 2025, lets equipment makers reach their machines securely. As of December 31, 2025, its network linked over 300 manufacturing sites.
Revenue comes in two types. Platform revenue comes from software licenses and support, online software, engineering services, fixed CV fees and DirectScan sales. In the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, it was $181.0 million, or 82.7% of the $219.0 million total. Volume-based revenue was $38.0 million, or 17.3%. It comes from Cimetrix runtime licenses, secureWISE data and royalty-style CV fees known as Gainshare, and it depends on how much customers produce.
Price history
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PDFS +59.2% over the year to Oct 28, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By product or service
| Platform | $181.0M | 82.7% |
| Volume-Based | $38.0M | 17.3% |
Latest results
- In Q2 FY2026 (ended Jun 30, 2026), revenue was $61.5M, up 18.9% from a year earlier, and net income was $4.3M (+272.7%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $219.0M (+22.0% year over year; +20.0% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a -0.3% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +20.0% good |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 2.7% weak |
| Free cash flow margin | -3.9% weak |
| Return on equity (FY2025) | -0.2% weak |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | -0.2% weak |
| Net cash (cash minus debt) | $48.4M good |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $88.0M | $-40.4M | $15.8M |
| FY2021 | $111.1M | $-21.5M | $571K |
| FY2022 | $148.5M | $-3.4M | $23.9M |
| FY2023 | $165.8M | $3.1M | $3.4M |
| FY2024 | $179.5M | $4.1M | $-7.5M |
| FY2025 | $219.0M | $-640K | $-8.6M |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $1.92B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | — |
| Dividend yield | None |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
PDF Solutions’s market value went from $710.0M at the end of 2016 to $1.92B on Oct 28, 2026, about 2.7 times as much; since the end of 2025 it is up 70%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 28, 2026 | $1.92B | +70.4% |
| 2025 | $1.13B | +7.4% |
| 2024 | $1.05B | -14.6% |
| 2023 | $1.23B | +15.3% |
| 2022 | $1.07B | -10.2% |
| 2021 | $1.19B | +50.1% |
| 2020 | $791.2M | +44.8% |
| 2019 | $546.4M | +100.8% |
| 2018 | $272.1M | -45.8% |
| 2017 | $501.6M | -29.4% |
| 2016 | $710.0M |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDFS price data to Oct 28, 2026 | +59.4% | +59.2% | +18.6% | +14.5% | +8.6% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | +59.5% |
| 2025 | +5.3% |
| 2024 | -15.7% |
| 2023 | +12.7% |
| 2022 | -10.3% |
| 2021 | +47.2% |
| 2020 | +27.9% |
| 2019 | +100.4% |
| 2018 | -46.3% |
| 2017 | -30.4% |
| 2016 | +108.0% |
| 2015 | -27.1% |
| 2014 | -42.0% |
| 2013 | +85.9% |
| 2012 | +97.7% |
| 2011 | +44.6% |
| 2010 | +25.2% |
| 2009 | +167.4% |
| 2008 | -84.0% |
| 2007 | -37.6% |
| 2006 | -11.1% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Lost 89.6% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 90.1%, back to its old high 38 months after the low |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 42.7% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 45.2%, back to its old high 1.1 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Lost 29.9% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 39.3%, back to its old high 7.1 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-10-29 to 2026-10-29 (17 read): 0 open-market purchases and 2 sales ($228K).
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 31, 2026 | Andrzej Strojwas Chief Technology Officer | sell | $151K |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Shuo Zhang Director | sell | $77K |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| KIBARIAN JOHN KACHIG | 6.5% | Dec 31, 2025 |
| John Kachig Kibarian | 6.5% | Feb 12, 2025 |
| Wasatch Advisors LP | 6.3% | Sep 30, 2026 |
| Needham Investment Management L.L.C. | 5.1% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| NEEDHAM INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT L.L.C. | 4.9% | Dec 31, 2025 |
ETFs with the most weight in PDFS
| PSCT Invesco S&P SmallCap Information Technology ETF | 0.42% |
| BUYO KraneShares Man Buyout Beta Index ETF | 0.17% |
| VIOG Vanguard S&P Small-Cap 600 Growth ETF | 0.1% |
| SLYG SPDR S&P 600 Small Cap Growth ETF | 0.1% |
| IJT iShares S&P Small-Cap 600 Growth ETF | 0.09% |
| QSML WisdomTree U.S. SmallCap Quality Growth Fund | 0.08% |
| NUSC Nuveen ESG Small-Cap ETF | 0.06% |
| RILA Indexperts Gorilla Aggressive Growth ETF | 0.06% |
What could go wrong
- Heavy dependence on one large customer. A large share of revenue comes from a few customers, and a large percentage from just one. Losing that customer, doing less business with it or facing price pressure could sharply cut sales and margins.
- DirectScan bet may not pay off. The company is investing heavily in DirectScan, its inspection system. If it misses development milestones or chipmakers adopt it more slowly than expected, the company may never earn back that spending.
- Single suppliers for key parts. Some licensed software and specialized parts for the DirectScan system each come from only one supplier. If one of them delays or stops supplying, replacing it could be costly or impossible, which would delay deliveries and revenue.
- Revenue tied to chip production volumes. Volume-based revenue drops when customers process fewer wafers or sell fewer chips. Some of it is booked using customer estimates, and those figures can be adjusted later when actual data arrive.
- Contract delays and fixed-fee overruns. The company sometimes starts work or gives software access before contracts are signed. Long negotiations, fixed-fee projects that run over budget or deals that fall through can delay revenue or force write-offs.
- Export rules and geopolitical tension. The company must follow export and import controls, which could expose it to legal liability or block sales abroad. Economic or geopolitical trouble could also cut demand or delay customers' purchases.
Recent events
- Quarterly results released
- Shareholder vote results
- Other company announcement
- Quarterly results released
- Major agreement signed; New debt or financial obligation
- Quarterly results released
- Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released
For income and retirement investors
PDF Solutions pays no dividend and paid none from fiscal 2021 through fiscal 2025. Investors who rely on portfolio income get nothing from it, and any return depends on the share price. The company spent $34.9 million on buybacks over those five years. Even so, shares outstanding rose 13.4% between August 5, 2021 and August 3, 2026. Free cash flow (cash from operations minus capital spending) was negative $8.6 million in fiscal 2025.
The stock has fallen hard in market downturns. It dropped 90.1% from peak to low in the 2008 financial crisis and took 38 months to recover. It lost 45.2% in the 2020 COVID crash but recovered in about a month. In the 2022 bear market it fell 39.3% and recovered by January 2023. As of October 28, 2026, its deepest decline in about 21 years of price history was 95.1%. Single stocks like this carry more risk than diversified funds.
Questions investors ask
Does PDF Solutions pay a dividend?
No. PDF Solutions paid no dividends from fiscal 2021 through fiscal 2025 and had no dividend yield as of October 28, 2026. Instead it returned cash through share buybacks, spending $34.9 million over those five years. Even so, shares outstanding rose 13.4% between August 5, 2021 and August 3, 2026, so the buybacks did not stop the share count from growing. Investors who depend on regular portfolio income would get none from this stock.
How does PDF Solutions make money?
It sells software, services and inspection hardware that help chipmakers improve yield and quality. In the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, Platform revenue was $181.0 million, or 82.7% of the $219.0 million total. That covers software licenses and support, online software, engineering services, fixed fees for CV test chips, and DirectScan system sales. Volume-based revenue was $38.0 million, or 17.3%. It comes from Cimetrix runtime licenses, secureWISE data and royalty-style Gainshare fees, and depends on customers' production volumes.
Is PDF Solutions profitable?
Not for fiscal 2025 as a whole. For the year ended December 31, 2025, it had a net loss of $640,000 on $219.0 million of revenue. That was despite keeping 72.3% of revenue after direct costs (its gross margin) and earning $5.8 million from operations. It made small profits in fiscal 2023 and 2024 after losses from 2020 through 2022. In the quarter ended June 30, 2026, net income was $4.3 million on revenue of $61.5 million, up 18.9% from a year earlier.
Who are PDF Solutions' customers?
Its customers are companies across the semiconductor supply chain, including Fortune 500 firms. They include foundries (contract chipmakers), companies that design and make their own chips, and fabless designers that outsource production. Equipment makers, electronics manufacturers and outsourced assembly and test companies also buy from it. Sales are concentrated. The company's annual report says a significant portion of revenue comes from a few customers, and a large percentage from a single customer. Losing that relationship or doing less business with that customer could sharply reduce revenue.
How volatile is PDF Solutions stock?
Very volatile. As of October 28, 2026, its one-year volatility, a measure of how widely the price swings, was 69.3%. Its beta was 3.02, meaning it tended to move about three times as much as the overall market. Over that year it fell as much as 44.6% from a high, yet finished the 12 months up 59.2%. Its deepest drop in about 21 years of history was 95.1%. Calendar-year returns have ranged from a loss of 84.0% in 2008 to a gain of 167.4% in 2009.