Lam Research, KLA and Applied Materials are three of the most looked-up valuations on this site. So we built a page for the whole chip-equipment chain and ranked 20 companies, from the toolmakers to the parts suppliers and packagers, against their own five-year EV/Sales history as of October 28, 2026. Every one we can rank sits above its own five-year median. In April 2025, most of them sat near the bottom of their range.
If you only read one thing
The short version: Chipmakers are on track for a record $144 billion of wafer fab equipment in 2026. The stocks priced that in early. Applied, Lam, KLA, Teradyne and Amkor were at the 100th percentile of their own range in January, meaning more expensive on sales than in any week of the previous five years. They have come down since July (Applied is down 22% from the week of July 27) but still sit between the 61st percentile (Photronics) and the 93rd (Cohu). Revenue mostly did not keep pace with the prices: the group's middle revenue growth is 14%.
How to read the numbers
Each percentile compares a stock with its own past, not with other stocks. We compute trailing EV/Sales (enterprise value divided by the last twelve months of revenue) every week from SEC filings and market prices, then rank today's value against the last five years of weekly readings. The 88th percentile means the stock was cheaper than today in about 88% of those weeks.
We lead with EV/Sales because equipment profits swing with chipmakers' budgets, and Ichor, Cohu and Aehr report losses today, which leaves P/E missing for part of the group. The tradeoffs are in our guide on when to use P/E, P/S, EV/Sales or EV/EBITDA.
The full table
| Ticker | Company | Layer | EV/Sales | 5y median | EV/Sales 5y %ile | Revenue growth (TTM) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COHU | Cohu | Inspection and test | 4.4x | 1.9 | 93 | 33% |
| AEHR | Aehr Test Systems | Inspection and test | 37.3x | 10.3 | 90 | -15% |
| FORM | FormFactor | Inspection and test | 9.4x | 3.9 | 89 | 18% |
| VECO | Veeco | Wafer fab tools | 4.0x | 2.4 | 89 | -3% |
| ENTG | Entegris | Parts and materials | 7.9x | 6.1 | 89 | 3% |
| AMAT | Applied Materials | Wafer fab tools | 10.2x | 5.3 | 88 | 8% |
| UCTT | Ultra Clean | Parts and materials | 1.2x | 0.6 | 87 | 16% |
| KLAC | KLA | Inspection and test | 15.2x | 9.0 | 86 | 12% |
| KLIC | Kulicke & Soffa | Packaging | 3.9x | 2.4 | 86 | 44% |
| LRCX | Lam Research | Wafer fab tools | 11.4x | 6.3 | 84 | 33% |
| TER | Teradyne | Inspection and test | 11.4x | 6.1 | 84 | 58% |
| AEIS | Advanced Energy | Parts and materials | 4.8x | 2.3 | 83 | 25% |
| AMKR | Amkor | Packaging | 1.4x | 1.0 | 80 | 16% |
| ICHR | Ichor | Parts and materials | 1.4x | 1.1 | 77 | 9% |
| ACMR | ACM Research | Wafer fab tools | 2.9x | 2.1 | 72 | 27% |
| ACLS | Axcelis | Wafer fab tools | 3.6x | 2.8 | 72 | -3% |
| ONTO | Onto Innovation | Inspection and test | 9.1x | 6.0 | 71 | 8% |
| PLAB | Photronics | Parts and materials | 1.2x | 1.1 | 61 | 1% |
| ASML | ASML | Wafer fab tools | n/a | n/a | snapshot only | n/a |
| 8035.T | Tokyo Electron | Wafer fab tools | n/a | n/a | snapshot only | n/a |
Where these stand now
Current readings update separately from the article’s dated analysis.
Above its usual range
LRCX's EV/Sales of 11.4x is higher than 83% of its weekly readings over the last five years.
Above its usual range
KLAC's EV/Sales of 14.6x is higher than 84% of its weekly readings over the last five years.
Above its usual range
AMAT's EV/Sales of 10.0x is higher than 88% of its weekly readings over the last five years.
The takeaway: The whole chain is priced above its own five-year middle. The most stretched names are not always the fastest growers: Veeco, Axcelis and Aehr have shrinking revenue and still rank in the 70s and 80s.
From the bottom of the range to the top in nine months
In the week of April 7, 2025, after the tariff sell-off, Axcelis, Cohu, Entegris, Ichor, Photronics and Amkor sat at the 1st percentile or lower of their own previous five years on EV/Sales. Applied Materials sat at the 35th percentile and Lam at the 43rd.
By the first week of January 2026, Applied, Lam, KLA, Teradyne and Amkor were at the 100th. Applied's share price had roughly doubled, from $144.94 to $301.18, while its trailing revenue grew about 3%. That is what a rerating looks like: the market paying more for each dollar of sales it already had, in advance of the orders it expected.
The orders came. SEMI, the industry association, expects wafer fab equipment sales to rise 23% to $143.9 billion in 2026 (SEMI's July forecast, via I-Connect007). Lam's September quarter revenue was $8.22 billion, up 54% from a year earlier (Lam's quarterly release), and ASML said its planned supply for 2027 and 2028 "will not fully meet the demand of our customers" (ASML's third-quarter release).
The takeaway: The rerating came first and the revenue second. Lam and Teradyne now have growth to show for it; Applied and KLA are still growing in the single and low double digits.
Since July: prices down, ranks still high
Applied closed at $507.67 in the week of July 27 and at $395.93 in the week of October 26, down 22%. Lam fell 18% over the same weeks. Their EV/Sales ranks moved from the 97th and 96th to the 88th and 84th. A drop that size still leaves both well above their five-year medians, because the earlier readings in their window are so much lower: Lam's EV/Sales is 11.4 against a five-year median of 6.3.
The P/E view is similar for the big three: Applied at the 85th percentile, Lam at the 79th and KLA at the 83rd. Toggle Lam's valuation history between EV/Sales and P/E to see both bands.
The China question
China was 35% of Lam's September quarter revenue, up from 26% in June (Lam's 10-Q), and Lam expects that share to fall significantly in the December quarter as domestic Chinese customers spend less (a summary of Lam's call). ACM Research sells mostly to Chinese chipmakers. Axcelis and Veeco agreed to merge in September 2025 and are still waiting on China's approval. If Chinese spending drops faster than Taiwan and Korea add, the smaller suppliers feel it first.
The takeaway: Equipment demand is real and dated in the filings. The prices already reflect a lot of it, and China is the swing factor.
Also new: 21 more chip and AI hardware stocks
To build this page we added 21 US-filing chip and AI hardware companies to our data, each held to the same filing-date checks as the rest of the site. Twenty are ranked today. A few outside equipment stand out on EV/Sales:
- Near the bottom of their own range: Ambarella (13th percentile), Power Integrations (21st) and Alpha and Omega Semiconductor (30th). Celestica, which builds switches and servers for cloud companies, sits at the 1st, but against only a year of history.
- Near the top: Silicon Labs and MaxLinear (91st), AXT (91st, at 30.5 times sales against a five-year median of 1.6) and Vishay (90th).
- Under data review: Penguin Solutions, whose sales multiple differs from an independent source by more than our limit allows.
Check it yourself
The semiconductor equipment theme shows all 20 companies by layer with live percentiles and an equal-weight basket against SMH. The chip equipment valuation screen sorts the same companies from lowest to highest in their own range. If percentiles are new to you, start with what a valuation percentile is and how we compute it.
Data: SEC EDGAR XBRL filings and weekly closing prices, computed by StockResearch as of October 28, 2026. Earlier-date percentiles use only the five years of weekly readings available at each date. Company figures come from the linked releases and filings. Jake is the founder of StockResearch.app. Nothing here is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Do your own research.