Tag Archives: aapl

Qorvo Sees June ‘Up Significantly’ Despite Apple iPhone Albatross

Qorvo ( QRVO ) skirted Apple ‘s ( AAPL ) iPhone shortfall by regaining Samsung Galaxy S7 share and riding the Chinese carrier aggregation trend, Needham analyst Quinn Bolton said Thursday after the chipmaker’s blowout fiscal Q4. In morning trading on the stock market today , Qorvo stock was up 8%, trading near a three-week high above 48. But shares are down 12.5% year to date on Apple’s weakness. Qorvo’s largest customer — widely assumed to be Apple — accounts for a third of its total sales. Shares of rivals Broadcom ( AVGO ) and Skyworks Solutions ( SWKS ) were up a fraction Thursday morning, after Qorvo’s fiscal Q4 beat late Wednesday. Last week, Skyworks topped fiscal Q2 expectations, but its fiscal Q3 sales guidance lagged by about $50 million, helping send its shares down 6.9%. For Qorvo, the March quarter wrapped up with $608.1 million in sales and $1.04 earnings per share minus items, beating the consensus of 20 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for $599.2 million and 92 cents. Year over year, sales and EPS fell 4% and 6%. Current-quarter guidance for $650 million in sales and $1.05 EPS ex items was also ahead of analysts’ views for $628.6 million and 96 cents, but that would be down 6% and 12% vs. the year-earlier quarter. On Thursday, at least four analysts boosted their price targets on Qorvo stock. Offsetting Apple’s 24% Fall Mobile sales declined 5% sequentially to $465 million, “driven by content gains on the Galaxy S7 platform that mostly offset a 24% quarter-over-quarter decline in sales to its largest customer,” Bolton wrote in a research report. Industrial and defense products rose 9% to $142 million in sales, also helping offset the hit from Apple, Bolton wrote. Bolton boosted his price target on Qorvo stock to 53 from 50 and reiterated his buy rating. Qorvo is “outperforming smartphone peers with content and share gains,” he said. Behind Apple, Samsung and Huawei are Qorvo’s largest mobile customers, Qorvo CFO Steven Buhaly said on the company’s earnings conference call late Wednesday. Qorvo “took the medicine” in December when Apple iPhone sales began slowing, he said. Outside Apple, mobile sales will be “up significantly” in the June quarter, Steven Creviston, Qorvo’s president of mobile products, said on the call. He credited growth in China and the carrier aggregation trend for the likely growth. In that segment, sales to Chinese ODMs (original design manufacturers) account for 40% of revenue. Carrier aggregation in China is driving demand for Qorvo’s radio-frequency chips, Qorvo CEO Robert Bruggeworth said on the call. Rosenblatt analyst Jun Zhang expects Qorvo to swipe Skyworks’ share on that trend. At Taiwanese MediaTek, Skyworks accounts for 80%-85% of all LTE chipsets, Cowen analyst Timothy Arcuri wrote in a report. He, too, expects Qorvo to aggressively gain share, boosting his price target to 55 from 50 but keeping his market perform rating.

Fitbit Beats Q1 Targets, But Disappoints On Q2 EPS Outlook

Fitbit ( FIT ) late Wednesday smashed Wall Street’s targets for the first quarter, but delivered mixed guidance for the current quarter that disappointed investors. Fitbit stock plunged as much as nearly 12% in after-hours trading following the earnings news release. In Wednesday’s regular session, Fitbit stock dipped a fraction, to 17.10. Fitbit made its IPO last June, pricing shares at 20. The maker of wearable fitness devices earned 10 cents a share excluding items on sales of $505.4 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected 3 cents and $444.3 million. On a year-over-year basis, Q1 sales rose 50%. But that’s down from 92% growth in Q4, 168% in Q3 and 253% in Q2. Q1 earnings per share dropped 63% from 27 cents in the year-earlier period. For the current quarter, Fitbit is projecting earnings per share of 8 to 11 cents excluding items on sales of $565 million to $585 million, or $575 million at the midpoint. Wall Street had been modeling for Fitbit to earn 26 cents a share, up 24%, on sales of $531.3 million, up 33%. For the year, Fitbit expects non-GAAP EPS of $1.12 to $1.24 on sales of $2.5 billion to $2.6 billion. Analysts on average were looking for 2016 EPS of $1.13 on sales of $2.46 billion. Fitbit competes in the health-and-fitness wearables market with Apple ( AAPL ), Garmin ( GRMN ), Microsoft ( MSFT ), Under Armour ( UA ) and others. Last week, Fitbit announced a distribution deal Chinese e-commerce website Tmall.com , a unit of Alibaba Group ( BABA ), that could bolster its prospects in China.

Qorvo Sidesteps Apple iPhone Drag To Crush Fiscal Q4 Views

Qorvo ( QRVO ) sidestepped Apple ‘s ( AAPL ) iPhone drag late Wednesday with a Wall Street-crushing fiscal Q4 earnings report, and with guidance that — unlike rival Skyworks Solutions ( SWKS ) — topped consensus expectations. In after-hours trading, Qorvo stock rocketed more than 8% after closing down 1.2% in Wednesday’s regular session, and leading shares of radio-frequency rivals Skyworks and Broadcom ( AVGO ), whose stocks both rose a fraction. For its fiscal Q4 ended April 2, Qorvo reported $608.1 million in sales and $1.04 earnings per share minus items, down a respective 4% and 6% vs. the year-earlier quarter, but topping analysts’ model for $599.2 million and 92 cents. Three months ago, Qorvo guided to $600 million and 90-95 cents. Qorvo ended fiscal 2016 with $2.61 billion in sales, up 53%, and $4.38 EPS ex items, down 8%. Sales edged the consensus of 20 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for $2.6 billion, but EPS topped by 12 cents. Current-quarter guidance for $650 million in sales and $1.05 EPS minus items would be down 6% and 12% year over year, but that’s ahead of analyst expectations for $628.6 million and 96 cents. Last week, Skyworks reported fiscal Q2 metrics that topped views, but shares crashed 6.9% on Q3 sales guidance that missed by about $50 million. Analysts called for a similar report from Qorvo, which is more heavily exposed to Apple’s iPhone product cycle. Apple iPhone sales have slowed — for the first time — ahead of the iPhone 7 release expected in September. But all three RF suppliers will ramp up on the iPhone 7, Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari says.