Super Micro Computer’s Next Leg Hinges on Keeping Nasdaq Listing

  • Home
  • Information
  • Feb 21, 2025

(Bloomberg) -- The next leg of Super Micro Computer Inc.’s rally, which has seen the shares jump more than 90% this year alone, hinges on the stock being able to trade on a major exchange.

The San Jose, California-based company has until Feb. 25 to submit all of its outstanding financial reports to bring it back to compliance so it can remain listed on the Nasdaq. The looming deadline has been an overhang on shares.

The market’s assumption is everything gets filed, according to Wedbush analyst Matt Bryson. “That’s largely baked into the stock at this time,” he said in an interview.

Shares have been trading higher since the company announced it hired a new auditor in November and said it has a plan in place to meet the Nasdaq listing requirements. Super Micro confirmed last week that it continued to “work diligently” toward filing the reports and that it believed it would be able to make the deadline. Still, shares remain roughly 50% below a high hit in March, when the maker of high-powered servers surged amid the artificial intelligence frenzy. The stock rose as much as 5.3% in early trading Friday.

Regaining compliance could bring back a sense of normalcy to the stock which has been roiled by allegations of accounting issues and filing delays. In August, famed short seller Hindenburg Research released a damaging report on Super Micro that led to a US Department of Justice probe. That same month the firm missed a deadline to file its annual financial report and two months later Ernst & Young LLP resigned as its auditor, citing concerns over transparency and governance.

“The stock in our view is still on the roller coaster ride that began last year,” Jim Kelleher of Argus Research wrote in a Feb. 14 note, maintaining a short-term hold rating on shares, adding that he would consider a rating change once Super Micro “resolves all matters.”

If Super Micro sorts out the compliance issue, there could be further upside. The company said last week that it expects sales to be $40 billion in the fiscal year ending in June 2026, topping average analyst estimates of about $31 billion. That was enough to send shares higher, even though near-term and reported results were weaker than anticipated.

“The company still needs to prove its ability to execute” even as the 2026 sales guidance “aims to help cushion the blow” of weaker results, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Woo Jin Ho wrote in a Feb. 18 note. “We need to see a couple of quarters of meeting expectations before having greater confidence in the company’s view.”

Wall Street is still cautious on Super Micro with five buy, six hold and two sell ratings. At least five analysts have suspended coverage, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, until the company regains compliance.

Even if Super Micro fails to regain compliance with the Nasdaq, that doesn’t mean the company can’t return to the exchange. The current delisting threat is reminiscent of 2019, when Super Micro shares were taken off Nasdaq after the company failed to meet deadlines to file a 10-K and several quarterly reports.

The company was approved to rejoin the exchange in 2020, and in that year resolved a probe by the US Securities and Exchange Commission into its accounting by paying a $17.5 million penalty. Super Micro didn’t admit to or deny the regulator’s allegations as part of its settlement.

“It has to be in the backs of investors’ minds that this is something that’s happened a couple times now, so it’s arguably a pattern rather than a one-time event,” Wedbush’s Bryson said.

Tech Chart of the Day

Nvidia Corp. shares have clawed back most of their losses since investor fears surrounding DeepSeek’s AI claims fueled a historic rout last month.

Top Tech Stories

Earnings Due Friday

--With assistance from Subrat Patnaik.

(Updates stock moves at market open.)