Tag Archives: invn

Skyworks Guidance Lags By $50 Mil On Petering Apple iPhone Demand

Apple ’s ( AAPL ) “iPhone drag” tugged Skyworks Solutions ’ ( SWKS ) fiscal Q3 guidance by $50 million late Thursday, prompting shares of radio-frequency chip rivals Broadcom ( AVGO ) and Qorvo ( QRVO ) to topple early Friday. Skyworks stock led a broad Apple chip sphere fall, down 4.5%, near 68, in morning trading on the stock market today . Shares of competitors Broadcom and Qorvo were down a respective 2% and 2.5%. NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ), Qualcomm ( QCOM ) and InvenSense ( INVN ) stocks followed, down 1%, 3% and 4%, respectively. Apple stock was down 2%. For its fiscal Q2, which ended April 1, Skyworks reported $775.1 million in sales and $1.25 earnings per share minus items, in line and topping the consensus of 25 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for $775.6 million and $1.24. But EPS slipped to single-digit growth for the first time in 13 quarters, rising 9% year over year. Sales rose 2%, in the single-digit range for the first time in 14 quarters. Both metrics have decelerated for five consecutive quarters. Current-quarter guidance for $750 million in sales and $1.21 EPS ex items would be down 7% and 10%, respectively, vs. the year-earlier quarter. On a year-over-year basis, sales have never declined in the past five years. EPS has declined twice, but this quarter’s decline would be the biggest. And both metrics lagged the consensus for $800.5 million and $1.32. Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh blamed the “iPhone drag” for Skyworks’ weak guidance. On Tuesday, Apple reported its first year-over-year decline in iPhone sales and its first quarterly revenue drop in 13 years. Apple CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday that the company planned to cut channel inventories in the June quarter “in light of the macroeconomic environment.” Late Tuesday, supplier Cirrus Logic ( CRUS ) offered Q3 guidance that also missed Wall Street views. But Skyworks expects a strong September quarter, with 20% and 40% content gains at Samsung and Huawei. On average, Chinese smartphones are growing content by 20% year over year, Rakesh wrote in a research report. Rakesh cut his price target on Skyworks stock to 99 from 105 but reiterated a buy rating. Cowen analyst Timothy Arcuri estimates that 40 million to 50 million iPhones will be sold in the June quarter, leading to better upside in Skyworks’ fiscal Q4. But he adds that Qorvo might be a stronger RF competitor now. Both analysts suggest that Skyworks look to diversify amid the slowing Chinese and iPhone markets. Arcuri reduced his price target on Skyworks stock to 76 from 78 and kept his market perform rating.

HTC Vive Gutted: Micron Chips Stomp Facebook’s Oculus Rift

HTC Vive pummels Facebook ( FB )-owned Oculus Rift in terms of memory, but both tapped Apple ( AAPL ) supplier Texas Instruments ( TXN ) to lead their virtual reality headsets, teardowns from iFixit show . On Tuesday, iFixit unveiled its “Vive-section,” gutting HTC’s VR device to discover four Texas Instruments chips, including a variant on the 16-channel LED driver discovered inside the Rift. But the devices diverge largely on memory. Micron Technology ( MU ) supplies four Vive chips accounting for 72 megabits of flash memory vs. a single Winbond 64-MB chip supplying memory for the Rift. Vive and Rift both employ STMicroelectronics ( STM ) for an ARM-based microcontroller, and the former added in an STM transceiver for speed data transmission. Both also use a Toshiba converter. C-Media supplied an audio controller for the Vive, whereas Oculus tapped Apple supplier Cirrus Logic ( CRUS ) for the Rift audio codec. HTC chose  InvenSense ( INVN ) for its two gyroscope/accelerometer combos, vs. a Bosch Sensortec inertial sensor inside the Rift. HTC also added three NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ) microcontrollers and a Broadcom ( AVGO ) Bluetooth smart system-on-a-chip. Nordic Semiconductor provided Bluetooth for the Rift. After broadly falling 1.3% Monday on Wall Street, IBD’s 41-company Electronic-Semiconductor Fabless industry group was up nearly 2% in afternoon trading on the stock market today . Micron stock was up more than 9.5%, after rival SK Hynix reported Q1 sales and earnings that fell sequentially and year over year in a tough DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) PC environment. NXP stock was up 4.5% after topping Q1 earnings views late Tuesday and ahead of Apple’s fiscal Q2 report late Tuesday. On Monday, NXP stock fell 1.2% on after an iFixit teardown showed Apple included Intel ( INTC ) and Broadcom inside its Retina MacBook 2016, but not NXP. Shares of fellow Apple suppliers InvenSense, Cirrus Logic and Broadcom were up a respective 4.5%, 2% and 1.5%. STMicroelectronics stock was up nearly 3%, and Texas Instruments stock was up a fraction.

Apple Deflates iPad Pro, Taps Broadcom, NXP To Lead Smaller Device

Apple ( AAPL ) deflated its iPad Pro but didn’t skimp on the 9.7-inch machine’s specs, according to an iFixit teardown that found NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ) and Broadcom ( AVGO ) among the device’s winners. But the second-generation iPad Pro , which Apple unveiled last month, only scored a 2 out of a best-possible 10 in repairability. Meanwhile, LG’s flagship G5 scored an 8, featuring hardware from Qualcomm ( QCOM ), Skyworks Solutions ( SWKS ) and Samsung.   How healthy is Apple and its key chipmakers? Find out at IBD Stock Checkup Apple “went back to the drawing board” in its smaller iPad Pro. NXP topped the chip count, providing three for the machine: the Touch ID second, a controller and a charging component. Two Broadcom chips returned from the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and InvenSense ( INVN ) and Maxim Integrated Products ( MXIM ) both provided a chip apiece. Apple’s A9 processor also made a repeat appearance. Samsung and SK Hynix provided RAM and flash memory chips, respectively. But iFixit was especially enamored by the LG G5, which separates itself from other flagship phones by offering an easily removed — and therefore replaced — battery. LG unveiled the device in February. Qualcomm topped the G5 with six chips, including the processor and two power management chips. The chipmaker also supplied charging, audio codec and LTE transceiver chips. Broadcom and Skyworks Solutions each provided two chips, leading NXP, which supplied a controller. LG tapped Samsung for both RAM and flash memory. In midday trading on the stock market today , shares of Qualcomm and NXP were up nearly 1% and more than 1%, respectively. Shares of Maxim and Broadcom were up a fraction, while Skyworks stock was down a fraction.