Yet, another consequence of the March madness in the banking industry was that Treasury yields plunged at both the long end and the short end of the curve. Should this condition persist, it has the potential to benefit disruptive technology companies.
Lower yields generally translate to higher terminal valuations for high growth companies that plow all of their earnings back into the business in order to drive higher operating performance.
Infineon Technologies (IFX GR), the world leader in the semiconductor solutions that make robotics possible, was up 36%.
Yaskawa Electric Corp (6506 JP) also gained 36%. The company’s variable frequency drives, servo systems, and machine controllers are all mission critical components in most industrial robots.
However, one such example of where that benefit has yet to materialize is in the shares of Knightscope (KSCP). The maker of Autonomous Security Robots declined 53% during the quarter. New sales activity has been impressive, but profitability remains years away.
Coming into the year, we were optimistic about the potential for 2023 to be a year of repair and recovery for the global economy and the capital markets. But the recent hysteria in the regional bank space and its attendant credit crunch could push the story out into 2024. As for Robotics and Automation companies, the fundamentals remain sound, with growing end markets and accelerating adoption rates across the entire space.