COHR Appears Expensive to Its Industry: Is AI Premium Warranted?

Coherent Corp. COHR is currently trading at a 37.86X forward 12-month price-to-earnings, substantially higher than the industry’s 22.26X. While the stock appears expensive, the forward-looking metrics narrate a different tale altogether. In the second quarter of fiscal 2026, COHR’s non-GAAP EPS moved up 35.8% year over year to $1.29, surpassing the 17.5% rise in its top line. It is a clear indication of a significant operating leverage that the market is considering to price in.

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On the forward 12-month price-to-sales front, investors are paying a premium as the company trades at 5.83X, significantly higher than the industry’s 2.57X. This valuation gap exists due to segment concentration, as evidenced by more than 70% of the top line being derived from the Datacenter & Communications segment. Investors pay a premium since growth is tied to the AI infrastructure spending rather than cyclical macro-industrial trends. Coherent witnessed a book-to-bill ratio exceeding 4X in the data center segment, implying strong visibility for the coming quarters, justifying the higher valuation.

Coherent’s ability to improve its balance sheet is vital to its valuation. In the second quarter of fiscal 2026, the company’s percentage of total debt to total capital stood at 27.4%, lower than the year-ago quarter’s 41.1%. The company is effectively lowering its enterprise value by reducing interest expenses as well as maintaining a resilient adjusted free cash flow over the past quarters.

The company currently operates as a high-growth AI infrastructure provider. While the current valuation multiples appear high, strong margins and backlog imply that the AI premium is a result of operational efficacy rather than supposition.

Coherent Trades Cheaper Than Its Competitors

IPG Photonics IPGP and Lumentum LITE are major competitors of Coherent. IPG Photonics trades at 70.02X forward 12-month price-to-earnings, and Lumentum is valued at 56.33X. Certainly, COHR is currently priced lower than its competitors, making the stock more appealing to investors.

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COHR’s Price Performance & Estimates

Over the past six months, Coherent’s stock has skyrocketed 174.2% against the 2.2% dip of its industry. COHR also exceeded IPG Photonics’ 63.5% jump, while underperforming Lumentum’s 441% upsurge in the same period.

6-Month Share Price Performance

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Coherent Corp has a Value Score of D, while IPG Photonic and Lumentum carry a Value Score of C and B, respectively.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for COHR’s earnings for fiscal 2026 and 2027 has increased 5.5% and 13.1%, respectively, over the past 60 days.

COHR currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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