I'm getting that Spidy sense here- these are how the best investments are made you have an idea and it comes back to you like a wave...
All told, Universal Display's stock rose 77% in 2023. Its price-to-sales and price-to-earnings ratios climbed from fairly modest valuations to a princely 15.5 times sales and 44.4 times adjusted earnings. Investors appear to be comfortable with owning this former market darling at rather pricey ratios again.
You can count me among those satisfied Universal Display shareholders. The current valuation ratios may look steep, but the company has a plethora of upcoming growth catalysts waiting in the wings.
First, a wider range of devices are getting OLED displays nowadays. About 50% of smartphones sold today come with OLED screens, but the technology's penetration of the TV market stops at 3%, leaving a lot of room for growth in that sector. OLED displays are even more uncommon on laptops, tablets, and professional IT system monitors. The potential for rising market share across these devices is enormous.
The unique qualities of OLED screens are also reaching store shelves for the first time. One recent example is foldable smartphones. Other devices make use of transparent OLED screens, and Universal Display is working up stretchable displays as well. These quirky screen formats open the door to entirely new markets and innovative designs.
On a more technical level, Universal Display's patented technologies apply only to the red and green pixels in today's red/green/blue OLED screens. The company has been working on blue OLED elements with light production and lifespans comparable to their red and green cousins for more than two decades now, and a commercial-grade blue solution seems ready for launch within the next year or two. Delivering this new material should lower the power consumption of OLED displays, simplify the production process, and increase Universal Display's royalty-earning presence in each screen by more than 30%.
So I don't mind Universal Display's lofty stock valuation, because the company's future remains bright and its growth may accelerate in 2024. This is a nuts-and-bolts investment in next-generation technology, and I expect the growth story to continue for decades.