Semiconductor equipment manufacturing is a notoriously lumpy business. The companies in this line of business, such as ASML (NASDAQ: ASML), make the intricate (and expensive) machinery that creates various semiconductor chips, such as Nvidia's graphic processing units (GPUs). The demand for their services varies from year to year, making investing a bit of a cyclical guessing game.

For ASML, analysts forecast the company will see a jump in revenue later this year and into the next. Let's look at the reasons behind that upbeat forecast and determine whether now is a golden opportunity to buy the stock.

The lumpiness of ASML's business could be seen in its fiscal first-quarter results reported in April as the Dutch company saw its Q1 revenue decline nearly 22% year over year to 5.3 billion euros ($5.74 billion), while sequentially revenue fell 27%. The company generates revenue from both selling new and used lithography systems, as well as from after-sales support. Its Q1 equipment sales were down nearly 26% year over year to 3.97 billion euros ($4.3 billion), while its service revenue fell nearly 6% year over year to 1.32 billion euros ($1.43 billion).

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Source Fool.com