Qorvo has released its financial results for the fiscal 2019 third quarter, ended December 29, 2018. They reported revenue of $832 million with gross margin was 40.7% and operating income was $81 million. According to Bob Bruggeworth, the President and CEO at Qorvo, the company delivered record EPS and free cash flow in the December quarter despite softness in the smartphone market. He was pleased with the operational performance and excited about the position in the markets the company serves, including 5G, Wi-Fi 6, IoT, and defense.
Quarterly Highlights
- Significantly increased shipments of 5G massive MIMO infrastructure solutions to multiple OEMs and secured additional design wins across all anticipated 5G frequency bands, from sub-6GHz to millimeter wave
- Selected to supply high-frequency BAW filters for multi-year defense aerospace program, significantly extending the frequency range of Qorvo's BAW technology
- Secured design win to supply both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz FEMs for the Netgear Orbi Voice tri-band distributed Wi-Fi system
- Commenced shipments of multi-protocol Zigbee/BLE SoCs for electronic shelf labeling applications
- Commenced shipments of mid-/high-band PAD and ultra-high band (UHB) 3.5GHz FEM to leading Korea-based smartphone manufacturer
- Expanded support of Huawei to include mid-/high-band PAD, low-band PAD, antenna tuning and envelope tracking PMIC for Mate 20
- Selected by MediaTek to support 5G reference design with UHB 3.5GHz FEMs, enabling early 5G device demos
- Commenced commercial shipments of cellular IoT system-in-package modules for LTE CAT-M and NB-IoT applications, in collaboration with Nordic Semiconductor
According to Mark Murphy, Chief Financial Officer at Qorvo, the company's March quarterly guidance reflects weakness in the broader smartphone market, partially offset by content gains with the leading Korea-based smartphone manufacturer and double-digit, year-over-year growth in IDP. Looking forward, their expanding growth opportunities in IDP, sharp focus on high-value programs in Mobile Products and actions to improve cost structure are expected to drive another year of record earnings and free cash flow in fiscal '20.
Qorvo currently believes the demand environment in its end markets supports the following non-GAAP expectations for the March 2019 quarter:
- Quarterly revenue in the range of $660 million to $680 million
- Gross margin of approximately 47%
- Diluted earnings per share of $1.05 at the midpoint of guidance
Qorvo's actual quarterly results may differ from these expectations and projections, and such differences may be material.
