유니버설 디스플레이(OLED) 2026년 3분기 실적 발표 콘퍼런스 콜: 매출 증가, 가이던스 하단 근접

핵심 요약

• 유니버설 디스플레이 코퍼레이션(Universal Display Corporation)은 로열티 및 라이선스 수수료 증가에 힘입어 2026년 3분기 매출이 2025년 3분기의 1억 4000만 달러에서 증가한 1억 6000만 달러를 기록했다고 발표했다.
• GAAP 기준 순이익은 7900만 달러(희석 주당순이익 1.72달러)로 증가했다. 비현금성 UDC 벤처스 이익을 제외한 조정 순이익은 약 5600만 달러(희석 주당순이익 1.23달러)를 기록했다.
• 재료 매출은 출하량 증가로 일부 상쇄되었으나, 고객 믹스와 누적 정산 조정의 전년 대비 480만 달러 불리한 변동으로 인해 8300만 달러에서 8000만 달러로 감소했다.
• 경영진은 연간 매출이 기존 제시치인 6억 3000만 달러~6억 7000만 달러 범위의 하단에 형성될 것으로 계속 예상하고 있다. 연간 매출총이익률 또한 74%~76% 범위의 하단 근처일 것으로 예상된다.
• 폴더블 기기와 OLED IT 애플리케이션은 여전히 핵심 성장 동력으로 남아 있다. 옴디아(Omdia)는 2030년까지 폴더블 스마트폰 출하량이 4500만 대, OLED IT 출하량이 8900만 대에 달할 것으로 전망했다.
• 유니버설 디스플레이는 청색 인광, OLEDX, 노바젯(NovaJet)의 상용화를 계속 추진하고 있으나, 청색 인광의 상용화 시점은 고객사의 로드맵에 따라 좌우될 전망이다.

주요 재무 실적

기타 수익은 전년 동기의 100만 달러에서 3700만 달러로 증가했다. 이는 주로 UDC 벤처스 투자에 따른 2900만 달러의 미실현 비현금성 이익과 원화 환급 세금 관련 700만 달러의 외환 차익을 반영한 것이다.

유니버설 디스플레이는 약 8억 2800만 달러의 현금, 현금성 자산 및 투자 자산으로 분기를 마감했다. 3분기 중 약 7900만 달러에 약 96만 3000주를 매입했고, 2026년 첫 9개월 동안 1억 9300만 달러에 약 210만 주를 자사주 매입했다. 이사회는 주당 0.50달러의 4분기 배당금을 의결했다.

사업 및 운영 실적

폴더블 기기와 IT 디스플레이는 경영진이 강조한 주요 확장 영역으로 유지되고 있다. 옴디아는 폴더블 스마트폰 출하량이 2025년 1800만 대에서 2030년 4500만 대까지 증가할 것으로 전망했다. 같은 기간 OLED IT 출하량은 2700만 대에서 8900만 대까지 늘어날 것으로 예상된다.

경영진에 따르면 디스플레이 제조업체들은 8.6세대 OLED 생산 능력에 총 약 200억 달러를 투자하기로 결정했다. 삼성디스플레이, BOE, 비전옥스(Visionox), TCL 차이나스타(TCL China Star) 등이 해당 생산 능력에 투자하는 기업들에 포함된다.

유니버설 디스플레이는 사용자에게 도달하는 빛의 양을 늘리기 위해 개발된 자체 플랫폼 OLEDX를 공개했다. 회사 측은 OLEDX가 더 높은 효율성, 향상된 화질 충실도, 시청 경험에 대한 더욱 정밀한 제어를 지원할 수 있다고 설명했다.

청색 인광은 여전히 핵심 연구 과제로 남아 있다. 회사는 소재 발굴을 가속화하기 위해 인공지능, 머신러닝, 계산 도구를 활용하고 있다. 이 플랫폼은 10억 개 이상의 가상 분자 구조를 생성하고 약 5000만 개의 후보 물질을 평가했다.

UVJC는 첫 상용 시스템인 노바젯(NovaJet)을 출시했다. 소형 면적으로 제공되는 이 초기 장비는 반도체, 반도체 패키징, 태양광 발전, 전고체 배터리, 유기 전자 및 생명 과학 분야에서 건식 인쇄 적용을 탐구하는 연구자와 기술자를 위해 설계되었다.

경영진 가이던스

경영진은 2026년 연간 매출이 기존 6억 3000만 달러~6억 7000만 달러 범위의 하단에 형성될 것으로 예상한다. 회사는 통상 1분기에 출시되는 제품에 대한 재료 구매 및 생산과 함께, 하반기 신제품 출시 모멘텀이 4분기까지 이어질 것으로 기대하고 있다.

제품 및 고객 믹스의 영향으로 연간 매출총이익률은 제시된 가이던스 범위인 74%~76%의 하단에 위치할 것으로 예상된다. 연간 기준 로열티 및 라이선스 수익 대비 재료 매출 비율은 약 1.1:1로 예상된다.

공식 2027년 가이던스는 2월에 발표될 예정이다. 경영진은 내년 OLED 기기 면적이 한 자릿수 중반대 성장을 나타낼 것이라는 제3자 전망을 인용하면서도, 거시경제적 불확실성의 지속과 메모리 시장의 타이트한 수급 상황을 강조했다.

리스크 및 관전 포인트

• 고객 및 제품 믹스가 재료 가격과 매출총이익률에 압박을 가하고 있다.
• 2027년에는 투입 원가 상승이 예상되지만, 제조 규모의 경제 및 공정 개선을 통해 일부 상쇄될 가능성이 있다.
• 경영진은 거시경제적 불확실성과 부품 원가 상승, 특히 메모리 가격 상승세가 2027년까지 이어질 것으로 예상하고 있다.
• 청색 인광의 상용화는 고객사의 제품 로드맵에 의존하고 있으며, 현재의 기술 전환기 동안 청색 인광 개발 매출은 낮은 수준을 유지할 것으로 전망된다.
• OLEDX, 노바젯(NovaJet) 및 기타 신기술 플랫폼의 성과는 고객사의 추가 도입 및 상용화 진행 상황에 따라 결정된다.

애널리스트 질의응답 하이라이트

매출총이익률과 관련해 경영진은 고객 및 제품 믹스에 따라 전망이 조정되었다고 밝혔다. 회사는 연간 매출총이익률이 여전히 74%~76% 범위 내에 있을 것으로 예상하지만, 하단에 가까울 것으로 보고 있다.

2027년 마진에 대해 경영진은 높은 투입 원가를 주요 부정적 요인으로 꼽았다. 제조 효율성, 규모의 경제 효과 및 공장 공정 개선 등을 통해 부과되는 압박을 일부 상쇄할 수 있으나, 회사는 다방면의 마진 도전 과제에 직면할 것으로 예상한다.

청색 인광과 관련해 경영진은 고객 요구사항에 맞춘 개발 작업을 지속하고 분자 발견 분야에서 AI 활용을 확대하고 있다고 설명했다. 상용화 시점은 특정되지 않았으며, 차세대 소재로의 전환 기간 동안 청색 인광 개발 매출은 지속적으로 낮은 수준에 머물 것으로 예상된다.

형광체 감응형 형광(PSF, phosphor-sensitized fluorescent) OLED 아키텍처와 관련해 경영진은 유사한 도핑 비율과 매출 잠재력을 포함하여 현재 경제적 가치가 기존 인광 기술과 비슷한 수준으로 판단된다고 밝혔다.

재료 매출에 대해 경영진은 출하량 증가율과 매출 실적 간의 격차가 고객 믹스 및 누적 정산 조정의 전년 대비 480만 달러 변동에 기인한 것이라고 밝혔다.

실적 발표 전화회의(Earnings Call) 전문

전체 실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 녹취록

경영진 발표

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Universal Display Corporation's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Sherry, and I will be your conference moderator for today's call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded for replay purposes.

I would now like to turn the call over to Darice Liu, Senior Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Darice Liu

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Universal Display's Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call.

Joining me on the call today are Steve Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Brian Millard, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer.

Before Steve begins, let me remind you today's call is the property of Universal Display. Any redistribution, retransmission or rebroadcast of any portion of this call in any form without the express written consent of Universal Display is strictly prohibited. Further, this call is being webcast live and will be made available for a period of time on Universal Display's website.

This call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the date of the live webcast of this call, October 28, 2026. During this call, we may make forward-looking statements based on current expectations. These statements are subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties, and our actual results may differ materially.

These risks and uncertainties are discussed in the company's periodic reports filed with the SEC and should be referenced by anyone considering making any investments in the company's securities. Universal Display disclaims any obligation to update any of these statements.

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Steve Abramson.

Steven V. Abramson

Thanks, Darice, and good afternoon, everyone. The OLED industry continues to build towards its next phase of growth. The past few months have highlighted both the expanding reach of OLED and the industry's continued investment in innovation and adoption. We saw continued momentum in foldables, new OLED capacity announcements, growing efforts to expand OLED TV share and important advancements in several key areas of our technology road map.

We also introduced our groundbreaking OLEDX platform and reached a major commercialization milestone through the launch of NovaJet by Universal Vapor Jet Corporation, or UVJC. Together, these developments reinforce our confidence in OLED's long-term trajectory and UDC's leadership role in helping shape that future.

Let me begin with foldables, where we are seeing meaningful innovation, investment and adoption across the industry. Foldables reached an important milestone with Apple's launch of the iPhone Duo, their first foldable smartphone. Initial production allocations sold out within minutes of preorders opening with delivery estimates now extending into 2027 due to strong demand and limited early supply.

The foldables are not just an Apple story. The race to establish leadership in foldables is accelerating. Ahead of the iPhone Duo launch, Samsung released its Galaxy Z8 series, Xiaomi introduced its new 18 Fold and Huawei unveiled its third-generation tri-fold, the Mate XT 2. These launches, together with broader industry activity, underscore the growing importance of foldables as a strategic category for leading smartphone makers.

Foldable smartphones are becoming one of the industry's most compelling growth stories. While the broader smartphone market continues to face macroeconomic uncertainty, premium devices have remained relatively resilient and foldables are emerging as one of the fastest-growing segments. Omdia forecasts foldable smartphone shipments will reach 45 million units by 2030, up approximately 150% from 18 million units in 2025.

Foldables deliver big screen versatility in a pocket-sized device, combining the convenience and portability of a smartphone with the immersive experience and added functionality of a much larger display. With nearly 2 to 3x the square inches of a traditional smartphone, foldables showcase what OLED's do uniquely well, enabling thin, lightweight, flexible and power-efficient displays that conventional technologies simply cannot match.

Another major area of expansion is IT, where OLED adoption is accelerating across notebooks, tablets and monitors. As new capacity comes online, Omdia expects OLED IT shipments to reach 89 million units in 2030, more than tripling from 27 million units in 2025. Industry investment continues to support that growth outlook. Display makers have collectively committed approximately $20 billion toward Gen 8.6 OLED capacity, including investments by Samsung Display, BOE, Visionox and TCL China Star.

Most recently, Samsung Display announced plans to restart construction of a new greenfield OLED facility focused on foldables and IT applications, while LG Display is expanding Gen-6 capacity and evaluating future Gen-8 investments. We are also seeing encouraging developments in TVs. New OLED TV models from LG, Sony and Panasonic are using LG Display's lower-cost SE architecture, helping broaden OLED's addressable market while preserving its premium picture quality.

Beyond consumer electronics, we continue to see attractive prospects in the automotive market. OLED's design flexibility, image quality and ability to support immersive digital interiors position the technology well for next-generation vehicle platforms. OLED's impact in automotive also extends beyond the cockpit. This month marks 10 years of OLED lighting in Audi production vehicles, highlighting how OLED technology continues to expand its role in automotive design, functionality and communication.

Foldables, IT, TVs and automotive each address different markets. And together, they are expanding OLED's reach across a broader set of products, applications and customers. As OLED continues to evolve, so does the opportunity to push the boundaries of performance, efficiency and visual experience. That is where UDC's technology leadership matters.

At IMID, a major Korean display conference in August, we introduced OLEDX, a proprietary technology platform designed to extract more light out of an OLED display and deliver it to the user. Our phosphorescent technologies revolutionize OLED efficiency by maximizing light generation. But currently, not all of that light reaches the user. OLEDX is designed to dramatically increase the amount of light that reaches the user. Put simply, phosphorescence creates the photons and OLEDX helps make every photon count.

Together, these complementary technologies can unlock the next level of OLED performance, enabling higher efficiency, enhanced image fidelity and greater control over the viewing experience. Phosphorescent blue remains a central element of our innovation road map, and we continue to make advancements across key performance metrics, including efficiency, color, lifetime and manufacturability. We are also expanding our work into a broader range of materials and device architectures to accelerate commercialization.

While commercialization timing remains depending on customer road maps, we believe phosphorescent blue represents a significant opportunity for both UDC and the OLED industry. Our materials portfolio is also expanding through next-generation red and green emitters designed to support broader color gamut and emerging architectures such as PSF or phosphor-sensitized fluorescent OLED's.

To further accelerate progress, we are leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced computational tools through our innovation pipeline. Our AI-enabled discovery platform has generated a virtual library of more than 1 billion molecular designs and evaluated approximately 50 million candidates using proprietary models, enabling us to explore a broader molecular design space more quickly and efficiently.

From that effort, we have already identified hundreds of promising innovative molecular cores, synthesized new candidates and generated leads to advance our commercial blue program. These capabilities are accelerating progress of phosphorescent blue and enhancing our ability to discover and optimize next-generation OLED materials across our broader portfolio.

Beyond our core business, our equipment subsidiary, UVJC, recently launched NovaJet, the first commercial system and a significant milestone for a technology platform UDC has spent years developing. With the potential applications spanning multiple large end markets, including semiconductors, photovoltaics, solid-state batteries, organic electronics and life sciences, we believe UVJC can create new long-term avenues for value creation.

The industry continues to navigate macroeconomic uncertainty and elevated component costs, particularly memory pricing. Display makers and brands continue to invest in OLED capacity, technology and new products. We believe those investments reinforce the industry's long-term growth outlook.

And with that, Brian, I'll turn the call over to you.

Brian Millard

Thanks, Steve. Revenue for the third quarter of 2026 was $160 million compared to $140 million last year. We continue to expect full year revenue to track toward the lower end of our prior guidance range of $630 million to $670 million. Total material sales in the third quarter were $80 million compared to $83 million in the third quarter of 2025.

The decrease in material sales primarily reflected customer mix and a $4.8 million unfavorable year-over-year change in cumulative catch-up adjustments related to estimated product mix, partially offset by higher unit material volume. Green emitter sales, which include our yellow green emitters, were $61 million compared to $65 million in the third quarter of last year. Red emitter sales were $19 million compared to $17 million in the third quarter of 2025.

Revenue from royalty and license fees was $75 million in the third quarter compared to $53 million in the prior year period. The increase was primarily due to higher unit material volume, customer mix and the absence of the $9.5 million out-of-period adjustment that reduced royalty and license revenue in the third quarter of 2025.

The ratio of material sales to royalty and license revenue was approximately 1.1:1 in both the third quarter and the first 9 months of this year, which is now our full year ratio expectation as a result of customer and product mix changes. Adesis, our contract development and manufacturing subsidiary, generated $5.2 million of revenue during the quarter compared to $3.7 million in the third quarter of 2025.

Cost of sales was $43 million for the quarter. Total gross margin was 73% compared to 75% in the prior year period. We expect total gross margins for the full year to trend toward the lower end of the 74% to 76% guidance range due to product mix and customer mix. Operating expenses, excluding cost of sales, were $64 million compared to $61 million in the prior year period.

Operating income was $54 million, representing an operating margin of 33% compared to $43 million and 31% in the prior year period. Other income was $37 million compared to $1 million in the prior year period, primarily reflecting a $29 million unrealized noncash gain on a UDC Ventures investment and a $7 million foreign exchange gain on our Korean won tax receivable. The effective tax rate for the quarter was approximately 20%.

GAAP net income was $79 million or $1.72 per diluted share compared to net income of $44 million or $0.92 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2025. Excluding the UDC Ventures gain, net of tax, adjusted net income was approximately $56 million or $1.23 per diluted share. Because the gain was noncash and unrelated to our core business, we believe adjusted results better reflect operating performance. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results is included in today's earnings materials.

I would like to briefly highlight UDC Ventures, which we launched a few years ago to complement our long-standing commitment to innovation and technology leadership. Today, the portfolio includes about a dozen investments and approximately $80 million in assets under management. Our focus is on 3 areas: innovations across the display ecosystem that support our core technologies, AI and machine learning initiatives that advance materials discovery and disruptive technologies with the potential to create new markets and transform industries.

We are already seeing strategic benefits from the companies technologies and relationships fostered through UDC Ventures, and we believe the platform will continue to strengthen our innovation ecosystem, expand our technology pipeline and create long-term value.

Turning to capital allocation. During the third quarter, we repurchased approximately 963,000 shares for approximately $79 million. For the first 9 months of this year, we repurchased approximately 2.1 million shares for approximately $193 million. Over the last 12 months, we returned more than $340 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases and reduced our outstanding share count by more than 5%.

And today, we announced that our Board of Directors declared a fourth quarter cash dividend of $0.50 per share. We ended the quarter with approximately $828 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments. Our strong balance sheet and cash generation provides substantial flexibility to invest in innovation, pursue growth opportunities and continue returning capital to shareholders.

With that, I'll turn the call back to Steve.

Steven V. Abramson

Thanks, Brian. Foldables and IT are helping drive the next wave of OLED adoption, while OLEDX, phosphorescent blue and our broader innovation pipeline continues to push the boundaries of OLED performance. Through UVJC, UDC Ventures and Adesis, we are also extending our reach and creating additional avenues for long-term growth.

As we look ahead, we are excited about the opportunities before us and our ability to create value across a growing range of technologies, markets and applications through innovation, technology leadership and disciplined execution. I would like to thank each of our employees for their drive, desire, dedication and heart in elevating and shaping Universal Display's accomplishments and advancements.

We are committed to being a leader in the OLED ecosystem, achieving superior long-term growth and delivering cutting-edge technologies and materials for the industry, for our customers and for our shareholders.

And with that, operator, let's start the Q&A.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Abramson. [Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Brian Lee with Goldman Sachs.

질의응답

Brian Lee

Maybe first one for you, Brian. On the gross margin on materials, it's 50% second straight quarter. Can you kind of just walk through the puts and takes, the path to recovery? I think you had talked about getting back to the historical normal of 60% or so by the second half of the year. Is that still on pace for 4Q here? Or is there kind of a different trajectory we should be expecting?

Brian Millard

Brian, there has been a little bit of an evolution over the last few months in terms of the customer and product mix this year. So as you heard in my remarks, we are now expecting still to be within the range of our total gross margin guidance of 74% to 76%, but toward the lower end of that range. So that's really just a function of changes that we've seen in the mix of customers this year as well as the products that they're purchasing.

Brian Lee

Okay. Fair enough. I mean do you anticipate there's normalization as you move into next year? Is there visibility on that? Or is this potentially the new normal?

Brian Millard

Yes. I mean, looking to next year, we'll give formal guidance in February. But as you know, looking at the top line, there's certainly macro uncertainty that we do expect is going to continue into next year. So if you look at -- based on that, especially the memory environment expected to continue to be tight and challenging into 2027.

So if you look at that, the third-party research firms seem to be indicating on the top line roughly mid-single-digit growth expecting next year in terms of square area of OLED devices. And on the gross margin side, there are a number of moving pieces as we look to next year. There are some higher input costs that we do expect to materialize next year.

However, as we continue to grow, there are efficiencies and scale that we can generate through our manufacturing processes. We're also looking at some manufacturing process improvements for the plants that we do think will provide somewhat of an offset, but there are a number of pressures that we're facing on the gross margin side heading into '27.

Brian Lee

Okay. Fair enough. Last question for me, I'll pass it on. Just bigger picture, two of the maybe medium- to longer-term opportunities for you guys, if you could update us on them. One, blue phosphorescent material commercialization, kind of where are you on that? And then two, on the NovaJet, congrats on the progress there. Kind of next milestones? Do you need an equipment partner? Kind of what should we be thinking in terms of how close you are to commercializing and seeing real orders on that technology?

Steven V. Abramson

Brian, so on blue, we're continuing to work with all our customers to align development efforts with future requirements. We're continuing to expand our team. And as we talked in the prepared remarks, we're integrating even more as AI grows, it's helping us invent new molecules and accelerate the growth of that area. So we're very excited about the future, and it's still a story to be told.

On UVJC, this is pretty exciting because you may remember the old OVJP technology. Well, we pivoted on that, moved it to Singapore and are focusing on a number of other areas such as life sciences, semiconductor, semiconductor packaging, photovoltaics, even solid-state batteries. And this is -- the initial product is going to be a small footprint tool that will enable researchers and technologists to work with the technology because it's a really exciting technology of dry printing to see how it can apply in these myriad opportunities. So we're going to continue to evolve the UVJC platform, and we'll keep you posted from time to time.

Brian Lee

Okay.

Operator

Our next question is from Mehdi Hosseini with SIG.

Mehdi Hosseini

A couple of follow-ups for me. Brian, to hit your low end of revenue target for calendar '26 suggests that there's a big ramp coming in Q4, sequential growth in Q4 higher -- much higher than Q3. Should we assume that that's a reflection of the current sell-through and there's minimal downside risk to this?

Brian Millard

Yes. I mean, Mehdi, so there's a handful of products that launched in the second half of the year that we typically see strength from. So we expect that momentum to continue into the fourth quarter. And there's also a handful of products that launch typically in the first quarter of each year, and we see material buying and some production for that -- those launches happening in the fourth quarter. So we do believe it's achievable, and that's our plan at this point is to achieve that low end of the prior range, which is consistent with what we had thought back at the end of July.

Mehdi Hosseini

Sure. Okay. And I know there was a question on blue already addressed with your customers. But I'm kind of surprised there is no development revenue capture. How can I reconcile like the development revenue on blue with your continued engagement with customers?

Steven V. Abramson

Well, our customers still have some blue materials that they're working on. But I think it also -- and this is important, reflects the continued strategic transition as we advance the next generation of phosphorescent blue materials. So during this -- these transitions can affect development revenue from quarter-to-quarter, and we do expect the blue revenue to remain lower during this time period.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from Martin Yang with Oppenheimer & Company.

Martin Yang

I have one question on PSF. On these new architectures when your role takes on a sensitizer as opposed to emitter, can you maybe comment on how should we think about the economic value for UDC either on a per panel or per color basis relative to more conventional architecture? Do you see more opportunity for you, equal, less? Any comment is appreciated.

Steven V. Abramson

Martin, at this point, we're kind of seeing it in the same range of pure phosphorescence. I mean PSF is just starting out. We'll have to see how that works. The phosphorescence is obviously essential for PSF. And right now, it does seem as though it's occupying in the same range of doping percentage in revenues.

Martin Yang

Got it. A second question on volume versus pricing. So we've seen volume growth relative to revenue decline in the past 2 quarters or which implies the pricing is seeing some pressure on a year-over-year basis. Can you help us understand what is attributing to that decline?

Brian Millard

Yes. Martin, it's Brian. So there's 2 factors driving that. The first is just customer mix. We have different arrangements with each of our customers in that regard. And obviously, customers that have more volume, you would expect to have better pricing. As well as we did have a cumulative catch-up change. It was about a $4.8 million swing from Q3 of '25 to Q3 this year. And so -- and a significant portion of that hit the materials line. So if you normalize for that, you still have a little bit of a discrepancy, but lesser of one, and that's really due to the customer mix changes.

Martin Yang

Got it.

Brian Millard

Thanks, Martin.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to Brian Millard for some closing remarks.

Brian Millard

Thank you for joining us today. We remain confident in the long-term drivers for the company and the industry and including the continued adoption across new products, applications and form factors. We appreciate your continued interest and look forward to speaking with you next quarter.

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude our conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time.