Company: COHU
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001437749-25-004612
Chunk: 63

Company: COHU INC
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 63
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 percentage of net sales, decreased to 44.9% in fiscal 2024 from 47.6% in fiscal 2023. During fiscal 2024, our gross margin has declined due to lower business volume which has negatively impacted our ability to leverage fixed costs. In fiscal 2023, cost of sales also included the recognition of $1.1 million of step-up adjustments related to acquired inventories in the acquisitions of MCT and EQT.

We compute the majority of our excess and obsolete inventory reserve requirements using inventory usage forecasts. During fiscal 2024, we recorded net charges to cost of sales of approximately $5.4 million for excess and obsolete inventory. In fiscal 2023, net charges to cost of sales for excess and obsolete inventory were $4.5 million. We believe our reserves for excess and obsolete inventory and lower of cost or net realizable value are adequate to cover known exposures at December 28, 2024. Reductions in customer forecasts, continued modifications to products, our failure to meet specifications or other customer requirements may result in additional charges to operations that could negatively impact our gross margin in future periods.

Research and Development Expense (“R&D Expense”)

R&D expense consists primarily of salaries and related costs of employees engaged in ongoing research, product design and development activities, costs of engineering materials and supplies and professional consulting expenses. Our future operating results depend, to a considerable extent, on our ability to maintain a competitive advantage in the products we provide, and historically we have maintained our commitment to investing in R&D in order to be able to continue to offer new products to our customers. R&D expense in fiscal 2024 was $84.8 million, or 21.1% of net sales, compared to $88.6 million, or 13.9% of net sales in fiscal 2023. R&D expenses decreased during fiscal 2024 due to lower spending on material costs associated with new product development and lower incentive compensation due to current business conditions. Fiscal 2024 and 2023 included $1.6 million and $0.3 million of incremental costs from EQT, respectively.

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Selling, General and Administrative Expense (“SG&A Expense”)

SG&A expense consists primarily of salaries and benefit costs of employees, commission expense for independent sales representatives, product promotion and costs of professional services. SG&A expense as a percentage of net sales increased to 31.9% in fiscal 2024, from