Eagle Test Systems: Peaceful easy feeling

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Think back to technology in 1976. Steves Jobs and Wozniak were ready to show off the Apple I to their computer club. Bill Gates and Paul Allen were running “Micro-soft” in Albuquerque. Mobile telephones were only for the wealthy … think CB radio, good buddy.

But Eagle Test Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:EGLT) was already laying the groundwork for its business of making the equipment needed by semiconductor makers to guarantee their chips work.

For investors, Eagle has been a public company since March 2006, through a stock offering priced at $15.50. The question is, since Eagle has landed below its IPO price with the withering economy, can it fly high again?

Analysts who follow Eagle Test Systems think so: of the five polled by Thomson Reuters, three have the stock as a “buy,” with the other two at “strong buy,” with a median price target of $14.50.

Compared with the semiconductor industry since 2008 began, Eagle Test’s shares have risen 8%, while the Dow Jones Semiconductor Index fell 11%. In the past three months, Eagle has gained 15%.

Shares of Eagle Test pulled back after hitting a 52-week high of $14.90 on Aug. 11. The 52-week low of $9.31 was seen on Jan. 22. The stock ended trading on Wednesday at $14.63.

Based outside Chicago in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Eagle Test was founded in 1976 by Leonard Foxman — who is still CEO and president — before the semiconductor business exploded with the popularization of the personal computer. His son, Theodore Foxman, is chief operating officer and executive vice president.

Unlike 1976, today semiconductors are found everywhere. Eagle Test’s . . .

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