Coherent's stock rockets, leading optical names higher after EV product announcement

By Emily Bary

Coherent's shares were on track for their best day in more than 3 years

Shares of Coherent Corp. were surging about 20% in Wednesday action and powering toward their best day in more than three years after the optoelectronics company announced a new product that it says will serve electric-vehicle applications.

Coherent's (COHR) PH20 SmartWeld+ laser processing heads are "optimized for precision control of welding depths," making them beneficial in EV use cases, the company, which changed its name from II-VI Inc. last year, said in a release.

"The exponential growth in battery manufacturing for electric vehicles is driving the demand for next-generation laser processing systems that can produce the highest-quality welds in batteries while accelerating manufacturing throughput and maintaining competitive cost of ownership," the company said.

The company emphasized the precision of its new product, saying that it will be available with up to 6 kilowatts of power, enabling it to work with "long weld seams, such as those found in individual battery cells."

See more on EVs: Here's why Tesla's latest EV-charging deal is more problematic for EVgo than ChargePoint

The company's stock was on track to log its largest single-day percentage increase since May 12, 2020, when it increased 21.0%.

Shares of Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE) , and Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (AAOI) were seeing sharp gains as well in Wednesday's session, each up more than 7%.

Applied Optoelectronics shares have been the biggest winner of the bunch so far this year, up 112%. Shares of Coherent have advanced 46%, while shares of Lumentum are up about 10%.

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-Emily Bary

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06-14-23 1154ET

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