Cohu's CEO sold $6.7 million of stock near the $74.69 all-time high; the stock has fallen to $50.81
Cohu reports Q3 on October 28 and stages an AMD-keynoted Investor Day on November 10, while the CEO's $6.7 million in sales near the $74.69 peak now sit above every buyer's entry since the sell-off.
Richard Tang · 2 min read
Cohu's−2.06% — Cohu, down 2.06 percent as of its last quote CEO sold $6.7 million of stock within two dollars of the all-time high, six days before the company announced an Investor Day whose keynote comes from its own largest customer. Now the stock has fallen below every price he sold at, and the next three weeks decide which signal was the real one.
The exits, priced at the top
Luis Muller, president and CEO of Cohu, the San Diego maker of semiconductor test handlers and inspection equipment, sold 104,692 shares across three tranches between September 21 and October 2, at $60, $65 and $73 per share. His last sale landed $1.69 below the $74.69 all-time high, and six days later Cohu announced a November 10 Investor Day in New York featuring a keynote from AMD+2.11% — AMD, up 2.11 percent today, which Cohu itself calls one of its largest customers and a global AI computing leader 1. Over 90 days, insiders sold $8.32 million net and not one bought a share 1.
The stock has answered so far
A semiconductor-wide sell-off dragged COHU from that peak to $50.81 by October 16 2, well under all three of the CEO's exit prices. Nearly 23% of the float is short 1, betting against a 31.5x forward valuation built on trailing GAAP earnings that are negative 1.
COHU now trades below every price the CEO sold at
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Sep 21 sale | 60 |
| Sep 25 sale | 65 |
| Oct 2 sale | 73 |
| Oct 16 close | 50.81 |
The bulls' case is a pipeline, not a P&L
Management raised its 2026 high-performance computing revenue outlook to roughly $100–110 million, anchored by the Eclipse thermal-handler platform and a stated pipeline near $850 million across 15 to 19 computing customers, including a $26 million Eclipse order received early in the third quarter 2. HBM-related revenue, tied to high-bandwidth memory inspection, is expected to grow about 80% this year 2. That is the plan; the income statement has not confirmed it, and results have swung from a large Q4 2025 miss to a wide Q2 2026 beat 1.
Three weeks that settle it
Cohu reports third-quarter results on October 28, then presents financial targets under AMD's imprimatur on November 10 3. If the orders convert, the shorts cover. If they do not, Muller's peak-priced exits become the story.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
