LPKF Laser's AGM: Retained Earnings, Board Shake-Up, and a Stock Under Short Siege

LPKF Laser & Electronics recommends no dividend for 2025 as Q1 operating loss hits €6.9M; short sellers increase positions while AGM brings board changes and stock remains oversold.

LPKF Laser & Electronics SE heads into its annual general meeting on 4 June with shareholders facing a clear message from management: keep the cash in the company. The board and supervisory board recommend carrying forward the entire net profit of roughly €7.6 million, meaning no dividend for the 2025 financial year. Given that the laser specialist posted an operating loss of €6.9 million in the first quarter of 2026, the decision to hoard capital rather than hand it to investors is hardly a surprise.

That loss comes against the backdrop of a share price that has surged nearly 300% since January, a rally that has turned a stock that traded as low as €5.35 in December 2025 into a €23.70 (as of Thursday) name. Yet the stock has pulled back about 18% from its 52-week high of €29.20, and the relative strength index has dipped to 20, signalling deeply oversold conditions. The disconnect between market euphoria over the company's glass substrate technology and its still-struggling operating business is now being tested from two sides.

On one side are the short sellers. Voleon Capital Management has lifted its net short position to 2.13%, up from 1.70% at the end of April, while Marshall Wace also holds a disclosed short bet. Voleon crossed the 0.5% reporting threshold on 29 April and has been raising its stake in short intervals since then. The shorts are not necessarily betting against the technology itself — rather, they appear to be playing the gap between soaring expectations and the hard evidence of commercial traction.

On the other side, the AGM itself brings structural change to the boardroom. The deputy chairman of the supervisory board will step down at the meeting's conclusion and is not standing for re-election. The board has proposed Dr. Arne Schneider, CEO of Elmos Semiconductor SE, as his replacement — a semiconductor and accounting specialist whose expertise aligns closely with LPKF's ambitions in chip packaging. Also on the ballot is the appointment of Baker Tilly as auditor for 2026, a firm that has already been reviewing the accounts since 2023. Shareholders will also vote on a change to the company's bylaws that would allow future general meetings to be held anywhere within a 50-kilometre radius of headquarters, adding logistical flexibility.

The operating picture that shareholders must weigh is mixed at best. First?quarter revenue fell 32% to €17.1 million from €25.3 million a year earlier. The solar business dragged heavily, while the semiconductor fantasy drove the share price. EBIT swung to minus €6.9 million from minus €3.9 million, and adjusted EBIT came in at minus €5.7 million, partly due to spending on the "North Star" transformation programme. On the positive side, order intake rose to €24.1 million, pushing the book-to-bill ratio to 1.4 — meaning new orders are coming in faster than the company can ship them.

Management's full?year guidance for 2026 calls for revenue of €105 million to €120 million and an adjusted EBIT margin ranging from minus 3% to plus 4.5%. Critically, that forecast does not include any potential volume orders from the advanced packaging segment that investors are so keen on. The company continues to consolidate production in Suhl and is closing its Fürth site, while a syndicated loan agreement has been extended early to 2028. The stated ambition remains a sustainable double?digit EBIT margin.

The technology that has fuelled the rally is LIDE — Laser Induced Deep Etching — which LPKF sells as a precision tool for glass substrates in advanced chip packaging. This week the company is showcasing the technology at the iTGV Forum in Wuxi, China, an event focused on through?glass vias and glass interposers. It also has a presence at the SPEXA space conference in Tokyo. Yet market presence alone has not been enough to convince short sellers or, for that matter, to deliver the volume contracts that the valuation demands.

Investors will have to wait for hard proof. After the AGM, the next key date is 18 June, when CEO Klaus Fiedler speaks at the SdK investor forum. The half?year report is due on 23 July. By then, the market's question will be plain: has LPKF turned its LIDE story into signed, scalable orders, or does the 300% run remain a bet on promise rather than profit?