Tag Archives: avgo

Apple Supplier ARM Topples On Mobile Decline; Eyes IoT, Cloud

U.K.-based  Apple ( AAPL ) supplier ARM Holdings ( ARMH ) stock toppled Wednesday, as its earnings disappointed despite Q4 sales topping Wall Street expectations, amid a strategic shift into the Internet of Things and cloud markets. ARM stock fell 8.8% Wednesday, to 37.74, and touched its lowest point since July 2013. Shares under-performed IBD’s 41-company Electronic Semiconductor-Fabless industry group, which fell a fraction after touching a 16-month low this week. ARM isn’t pretending the smartphone market hasn’t stalled, Rene Haas, the company’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer, told IBD. But ARM still has headroom for growth, he said. “It’s nothing we haven’t been expecting nor planning for,” he said. “But about half our revenue comes from outside smartphones.” For Q4, ARM reported $407.9 million in sales and 8.2 pence (12 cents) earnings per share ex items. Both measures were up 14% year over year, ARM said. The consensus of 11 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters modeled $398.1 million and 38 cents (26.2 pence). The designer of mobile chips saw sales rise 15% for the year, to $1.49 billion. EPS rose 25% to 30.2 pence (44 cents). Fourth-quarter licensing sales fell 2% to $1.58 million, but royalty sales rose 31% to $216.7 million. Software/tool sales rose 19%. However, smartphone-chip sales fell 3%. ARM guided to 2016 sales “broadly in line with market expectations” at roughly 9.7% year-over-year growth to $1.63 billion in sales, William Blair analyst Anil Doradla wrote in a research report. Doradla reiterated his outperform rating on ARM stock, but Canaccord Genuity analyst Matthew Ramsay cut his price target to 55 from 60, citing continued macroeconomic semiconductor uncertainty. He maintained his buy rating on ARM stock. ARM Finagles Stalled Mobile Industry Roughly 45% of ARM’s sales stem from smartphones, down from 60% in 2010. The smartphone slowdown won’t slug ARM nearly as hard as its rivals, Haas told IBD. During Q4, ARM shipped 4 billion chips. Half of the smartphone chips shipped contained ARM’s 64-bit processor, which commands higher royalty fees than ARM’s older, 32-bit processor. About 40% of smartphone chips shipped contained ARM’s graphics processing unit (GPU), Mali, and 10% held eight or more cores. “What that means is that even as growth slows from a unit standpoint, we still have good room to grow because underneath the hood we have three strong factors that drive growth in the market,” Haas said, referring to processors, GPUs and cores. ‘Cars Are Just Getting Smarter’ In 2016, ARM expects to grow further into the cloud and Internet of Things markets, Haas said. Licensing in both segments could be a boon. Networking market share grew to 15% in 2015 vs. 10% in 2014, and ARM now counts Broadcom ( AVGO ) and Marvell Technology Group ( MRVL ) among its networking chip clients. Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ), Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Qualcomm ( QCOM ) also use ARM-based server chips, according to ARM. “That (5% jump in networking) is a pretty big jump, given what’s going on in that marketplace and given that those markets have some stickiness once you’re inside,” Haas said. In the Internet of Things market, Haas expects ARM to benefit from burgeoning automotive intelligence. Most “embedded technologies” — thermostats, motors, drones and vehicles — use older technology. But the 8-bit micro-controllers powering those technologies are rapidly being replaced by the 32-bit architecture, Haas says. “The fact is cars are just getting smarter,” he said. “There are cars today that could have 100-plus chips inside them. A smartphone might only have one or two chips using ARM technology.”

Apple Chipmakers Skyworks, NXP, Avago Plunge On Qorvo Sales Outlook

Qorvo ( QRVO ) drew fellow  Apple ( AAPL ) suppliers Skyworks Solutions ( SWKS ), NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ), Cirrus Logic ( CRUS ) and Avago Technologies ( AVGO ) into a hole Friday, after the company late Thursday guided current-quarter sales below Wall Street’s consensus by $20 million. IBD’s 41-company Electronic-Semiconductor Manufacturing industry group fell by as much as 3.7% Friday and was down more than 2% in afternoon trading on the stock market today . Qorvo was down nearly 4%. Avago and Cirrus Logic stocks were down 5.5% and 4%, respectively. Shares of Skyworks and NXP were both down about 6% Friday afternoon. Apple stock was down nearly 2.5%. For its fiscal Q3 ended Jan. 2, Qorvo reported $620.7 million in sales and $1.03 earnings per share ex items, down 16% and 20%, respectively, vs. the year-earlier quarter. Both measures topped the consensus of 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for $620.34 million and 94 cents. Qorvo also topped its Jan. 7 sales pre-announcement of $620 million, but missed its earlier, unchanged guide for $1.25-$1.30 EPS ex items. For the current quarter, Qorvo guided to $600 million in sales minus items and 90-95 cents EPS ex items. The consensus saw $620.1 million and 92 cents. At least four analysts cut their price targets Friday on Qorvo stock. Citigroup downgraded shares. DA Davidson analyst Thomas Diffely blamed Apple iPhone weakness as a “key contributor” to Qorvo’s 15% sequential decline in mobile sales. During Q3, Apple sales comprised 42% of Qorvo’s total revenue, he estimated in a research report. The March quarter will largely depend on Samsung’s Galaxy S7 ramp-up, MKM analyst Ian Ing wrote in a report. Qorvo is approaching the quarter cautiously. “We perceived an abundance of caution and potential volatility to both the current quarter as well as the calendar year,” he wrote. “That said, Qorvo feels ‘very good’ on designs for marquee phones with a September quarter, December quarter ramp.” Qorvo expects dollar-content growth in “the most highly-anticipated marquee smartphones this year at our three largest mobile customers,” CEO Robert Bruggeworth told investors on the company’s earnings conference call late Thursday. Infrastructure/defense sales grew sequentially, analyst Diffely noted. “We expect growth (in infrastructure and defense products) to continue for several more quarters buoyed by a combination of stable markets and a number of new product introductions,” he wrote. Ing and Diffely slashed their price targets on Qorvo stock to 65 from 66, and to 65 from 70, respectively. Both rate Qorvo stock a buy.

Apple Suppliers NXP, Qorvo Fall On iPhone 6S Weakness

Apple ‘s ( AAPL ) iPhone 6S tornado hit shares of chipmakers  NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ) and Qorvo ( QRVO ), a Goldman Sachs analyst wrote Wednesday ahead of the duo’s quarterly earnings reports. Both are expected to report 16% dips in December-quarter sales and earnings that fell by double digits during the holiday season. “Smartphone-exposed stocks have been under pressure recently after a slew of negative pre-announcements among suppliers with heavy Apple exposure,” Toshiya Hari of Goldman Sachs wrote in a research report. But Hari sees the potential for a “snap-back” as “investors digest Apple’s weak Q1 and begin to look at what we believe will be a relatively strong 2016 overall.” NXP Semiconductors fell 2.9% on the stock market today  ahead of its late Wednesday Q4 earnings report. Qorvo stock closed down 0.2% and is scheduled to report fiscal Q3 earnings late Thursday. Apple for its part, rose 2% on Wednesday. For its December quarter, NXP is expected to report $1.29 billion in sales and $1.07 earnings per share ex items, down 16% and 21%, respectively, vs. the year-earlier quarter. The consensus view of 25 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters was relatively in line with NXP’s three-months-ago guidance for a sales decline of “low to mid-teens,” sequentially. For the year, analysts model $5.78 billion in sales and $5.43 EPS minus items, up 2% and 14%, respectively, vs. 2014. Hari rates NXP stock a neutral as it continues realizing synergies from its recently completed acquisition of Freescale Semiconductor. The merger reduced NXP’s Apple exposure by essentially half, Hari noted. He expects NXP to mount up on its automotive content, expected to grow by 9% CAGR over the next three years. Advanced driver assistance systems, infotainment and autonomous vehicles will drive that growth. Late Thursday, Qorvo is expected to report $620.3 million in sales and 94 cents EPS ex items for its fiscal Q3. On a year-over-year basis, sales would dip 16% and EPS would be down 37%. Qorvo, Cirrus Logic ( CRUS ) and Dialog Semiconductor drove smartphone pressure with their negative pre-announcements late last year. Qorvo reduced its fiscal Q3 sales guide to $620 million from earlier views for $720 million to $730 million. The company didn’t reduce its EPS ex items guide for $1.25 to $1.30. Hari downgraded Qorvo stock to neutral from a buy rating on its “disadvantage to Skyworks Solutions ( SWKS ) … given (Qorvo’s) ongoing integration and Skyworks’ ability to leverage its portfolio of adjacent analog products to provide more complete solutions to handset (smartphone-makers).” Qorvo was created in January 2015 with the merger of RFMD and TriQuint, and competes against radio-frequency (RF) chip suppliers Skyworks and Avago Technologies ( AVGO ). RF content in smartphones is expected to grow 9% and 14% in 2016 and 2017, Hari estimated. That’s against an 0.4% decline in smartphone unit growth in 2016 vs. 1.4% growth in 2015, he wrote. Although Qorvo’s portfolio is more complete post-merger, Hari questioned the timeline on synergies. The company guided to $150 million in synergies in 2017 with $75 million realized in 2015.