-- Onto Innovation's (ONTO) acquisition of a 27% stake in X-ray hardware firm Rigaku strengthens its competitive edge in next-generation semiconductor process control, Oppenheimer said in a note Monday.
The company is anticipating that X-ray metrology will become much more important, and combining its software with Rigaku's hardware will enable it to capture a core position in the metrology category before it fully matures, analysts said.
Onto's investment in Rigaku, valued at about $710 million, is expected to be financially accretive by late 2026, and give Onto a board seat on Rigaku for strategic alignment, according to the note.
Advanced V-NAND and DRAM customers have already adopted the integrated systems, while there is growing interest from other logic and memory manufacturers, analysts said.
Oppenheimer reiterated its outperform rating on the stock, with a $350 price target.
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