OLED is a display technology that enables thin, efficient, flexible and bright displays, TVs and lighting devices. OLED displays offer the world's best image quality - and enables future foldable and rollable displays (see more here - What is OLED?).
The OLED market is already a multi-billion dollar market, led by Samsung and LG Display with their smartphone and TV OLED businesses. It is estimated that OLED displays generated around $25 billion in revenues in 2018 (and analysts expect the market to continue its fast growth in the future).
OLED stocks
There are dozens of companies developing and producing OLEDs, from display makers such as Samsung, LG and BOE to smaller R&D startups and IP companies.
For public investors interested in the OLED market, there are several good options:
- Universal Display Corporation: UDC is an OLED pioneer, and holds many of the key patents in the industry (mostly around efficient phosphorescent OLED emitters). Virtually all AMOLED displays on the market adopt UDC's PHOLED materials, and the company experienced very fast growth in revenue in recent years. Universal Display's stock ticker is OLED, you can see the OLED share price here.
- eMagin: eMagin is an OLED microdisplay pioneer, and has been developing and producing such displays for many years, focusing on the defense market and recently also on the consumer VR/AR market. eMagin's stock ticker is EMAN.
- OLED display makers: OLED display makers can be a good investment opportunity - especially companies that have a focus on OLED displays - such as Samsung Display and LG display, BOE Display and more.
- OLED equipment makers: There are several public equipment companies (for example Coherent and Applied Materials) that enjoyed the recent OLED capacity expansion as new OLED fabs require new equipment to produce OLED displays. These companies could be a good investment opportunity to investors who believes a new wave of OLED capacity expansion is near.
For private investors who want to find early-stage startups, we offer the OLED crowdfunding arena, a new and innovative service!
We'll be happy to hear your thoughts on OLED investing - join the discussion at our investment forum!
The latest OLED stock news:
UDC reports excellent Q4 2020 and full-year financial results
Universal Display reported its financial results for Q4 2020. Revenues reached a record of $141.5 million, and net income was $54 million. For the whole of 2020, revenues reached $429 million and net income was $133 million.
UDC expects meaningful growth in 2021, and believe revenues will be in the range of $530 to $560 million. The company also announced an increase to its quarterly dividend (to $0.2 per share).
Magnachip reports record quarterly OLED DDIC revenues in Q4 2020
OLED driver IC developer MagnaChip announced its financial results for Q4 2020, with revenues of $142.9 million and 2020 full-year revenues of $507.1 million. The company says its quarterly revenues reached a record high of $80.4 million - a 19% increase from Q3 2020 and a 19.4% increase from Q4 2019.Full-year OLED revenue of $284.6 million increased 6.5% from 2019.
Last year MagnaChip said it has a total of 16 OLED display drivers, almost double the number of drivers it had in its portfolio in Q1 2019. The company has started to develop OLED drivers for automotive products, which the company expects to to into production in the first half of 2021.
EDO progresses towards its IPO, will use the funds to construct a new 6-Gen AMOLED fab
Earlier this month we reported that China-based AMOLED producer EverDisplay (EDO) has become a public company. We have been a bit early, but the company is progressing on its IPO registration and has released some more information regarding is business.
The company is raising 10 billion Yuan ($1.5 billion USD) and most of these funds will be used to construct the company's new 6-Gen AMOLED line. As you can see in the image above, almost all the company's OLED panels are used in smartphones and wearables. But in 2020 the company also started to produce laptop and tablet displays - EDO recently started to make 11", 12.8" and 15.6" rigid and foldable AMOLED displays for laptop devices. We list many EDO OLED displays in the OLED Marketplace.
Everdisplay goes public and is now listed at the Shanghai Stock Exchange Star Market
AMOLED producer China-based EverDisplay (EDO) has become a public company and it is now listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Star Market. The company also released its financial results for the past few years.
The company increased its sales in recent years, rising from 600 million Yuan in 2017 to 800 million in 2018, 1.5 billion in 2019 and 900 million in H1 2020. EDO still suffers from losses, though, and in the first half of 2020 a net loss of 500 million Yuan.
Visionox reports good financial result for 2020, may receive large OLED orders from Huawei and Honor
China-based OLED maker Visionox reported good preliminary financial results for 2020, with increased sales and improved revenues and profits. The company expects its net profit to be around 141-210 million Yuan ($21-31 million USD), which will represent an increase of 120-227% over 2019.
The company says that its ability to innovate OLED technologies (specially the world's first OLED with an under-the-screen camera and the world's first 144Hz refresh rate OLED) enabled the company to increase its customer base and in 2020 it has added OPPO and Motorola as customers.
Samsung: demand for OLED panels was strong in Q4 2020, will remain so in 2021
Samsung Electronics reported its Q4 2020 financial results, with revenues of $55 billion and net income of $5.84 billion (less than expected by analysts). The company says that the lower revenues were due to a weakness in the memory and consumer devices businesses, offset by the best quarter ever for Samsung Display.
Samsung expects its OLED business to improve in the next quarter as major customers increase adoption of OLED displays. Looking ahead to 2021, Samsung sees increased demand for OLEDs for high-end and mid-range smartphones. The company aims to diversify into markets such as laptops, tablets and automotive applications.
LG Display reports good results for Q4 2020, driven by strong demand for OLED TV and pOLED panels
LG Display reported its financial results for Q4 2020. Revenues reached $6 billion USD, up 11% from Q3 2020 and 16% from Q4 2019. Net profits jumped to $555 million, up from $10 million in Q3 2020 and a loss of $1.6 billion in Q4 2019.
LG Display says that demand for TV and IT products remained strong as the global work-from-home situation continued. Shipments of OLED TV panels and p-OLED smartphone panels increased meaningfully.
Lumentum acquires OLED ELA equipment supplier Coherent
US-based Lumentum, a designer and manufacturer of innovative optical and photonic products, has announced that it is acquiring Coherent for around $5.7 billion. The two companies will merge to create a unified laser and photonics company.
Coherent is a leading supplier of ELA equipment for OLED production and in recent years the company reported a surge in system orders for flexible AMOLED production.
BOE to invest $155 million in a 12-inch wafer OLED microdisplay project
BOE announced it is raising new funds (a total of $3 billion) towards several projects, including an increase at its stake at its LCD lines and increase the capital at its 6-gen flexible AMOLED line in Chongqing.
According to the reports from China, one of these projects is a $155 million USD project to develop 12-inch OLED microdisplay production. This is a large sum that will also likely include funds to actually start 12-inch production and not just R&D.
Visionox starts production at its M4 flexible OLED module line in Guangzhou
According to reports from Korea, Visionox has started production at its M4 flexible OLED module line in Guangzhou.
Earlier this month Visionox announced that it lighted up its 6-Gen flexible OLED production line in Hefei, Anhui, China. The company is quickly ramping up its production capacity and is also planning a fourth panel production line in Chengdu.
