Tag Archives: mxim

Maxim Q4 Guidance ‘More Impressive’ On Likely Flat Samsung Sales

Maxim Integrated Products ( MXIM ) is offsetting Samsung’s expected flat June quarter with wins in fitness wearables, tablets and smartphones, CEO Tunc Doluca told analysts late Thursday during the firm’s fiscal Q3 earnings conference call. In afternoon trading on the stock market today , Maxim stock was up more than 1.5%, above 37. Shares hit an all-time high of 42.01 on Oct. 28, but dipped in January and February before a pint-size recovery. Maxim stock is down 4% for the year. For its fiscal Q3 ended March 26, Maxim reported 41 cents earnings per share minus items on $555.3 million in sales. EPS climbed 2.5% year over year, but sales dipped 4%. Maxim’s EPS topped by a penny the consensus of 27 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters and sales were in line, and both metrics touched the midpoints of Maxim’s earlier guidance. On a year-over-year basis, Maxim’s consumer, communications/data center and computing sales were down 9%, 10% and 30%, respectively. Industrial sales were flat, but automotive grew 25%. Current-quarter guidance for $555 million to $959 million in sales and 45-51 cents EPS minus items would be down a respective 1% and 12%. Consumer and automotive segments are expected to be “strongly up.” At least three analysts boosted their price targets Friday on Maxim stock. Pacific Crest analyst Michael McConnell noted Maxim’s Q4 guidance was “even more impressive” considering likely slow sales at Samsung. Samsung comprises about 15% of Maxim’s sales, McConnell estimates. This is “a sign that Maxim’s diversification strategy is paying dividends,” McConnell wrote in a research report. He boosted his price target on Maxim stock to 41 from 37 and reiterated his overweight rating.

Amazon Tap Casts Apple Suppliers; Texas Instruments Leads Echo Dot

Amazon.com ( AMZN ) tapped Texas Instruments ( TXN ) to lead its “hockey-puck-sized” Echo Dot Alexa-infused speaker, and incorporated Apple ( AAPL ) suppliers Broadcom ( AVGO ) and NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ) in its portable Tap stereo, iFixit teardowns show. But the teardowns did little to help chipmakers Thursday on Wall Street. Chip stocks were broadly down in afternoon trading on the stock market today , in conjunction with fractional dips for the major indexes. Texas Instruments won five chips — including a digital media processor —  inside the Echo Dot , but that total was skimmed down from eight chips inside the larger Echo . Also, Samsung succeeded SanDisk ( SNDK ) as the flash memory supplier. Echo Dot also features a DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) chip from Micron Technology ( MU ), apparently replacing a Samsung RAM chip in the Echo. Qualcomm ( QCOM ) re-won the Bluetooth function from the Echo. The smaller Echo Dot earned a six out of a best-possible 10 in its repairability rating, dropping from seven in the earlier Echo iteration. Amazon’s Tap won a seven out of 10. It’s Amazon’s first Alexa-equipped portable speaker vs. the Echo Dot and Echo, according to iFixit. Maxim Integrated Products ( MXIM ) topped the Tap with two chips — an audio codec and a power management chip. Texas Instruments supplied an amplifier. Apple suppliers Broadcom and NXP won a chip apiece — WiFi/Bluetooth and an applications processor, respectively. The device is powered by a lithium-ion cell, such as those used in Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) vehicles, iFixit notes. It provides for nine hours of music playback, according to Amazon, vs. the iPhone 6S Plus, which has “a battery with a similar output for a radically different job.”

Apple Suppliers Downgraded On ‘Modestly Lower’ iPhone Demand

Petering Apple ( AAPL ) and Samsung demand prodded a Raymond James analyst to downgrade suppliers NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ), Qorvo ( QRVO ), Skyworks Solutions ( SWKS ) and others, even with the iPhone 7 launch expected in September. Apple suppliers broadly fell in morning trading on the stock market today . Radio-frequency chip companies Qorvo and Skyworks were down 2.6% and 2.2%, respectively, on the downgrade, tugging rival Broadcom ( AVGO ) down 1.3%. Maxim Integrated Products ( MXIM ) stock was down more than 1%, while Apple suppliers Analog Devices ( ADI ), NXP and Texas Instruments ( TXN ) stocks were all down roughly 1%. In all, Raymond James analyst Steven Smigie downgraded six semiconductor stocks to outperform from strong buy, citing likely in-line earnings and minimal upside to June guidance. Following a January drop in the stocks, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index has rebounded 20% since mid-February, Smigie wrote in a research report. Some stocks have run up 40%, he noted. But “with only modest signs that there is the potential for near-term upside to (earnings per share), and some signs of modest downside, we worry that shares have a limited upside, with reasonable downside risk,” he wrote. Confidence could improve in the seasonally stronger second half of 2016, when Apple typically launches its newest iPhone flagship. But “Apple is seeing modestly lower demand,” said Smigie, who questioned the likelihood of a positive June guide by Apple. He also noted some pain points for radio-frequency suppliers that have more than 45% exposure to Apple. “Even if the Apple guide is healthy, we think skepticism will remain until the summer when we start to get evidence of the iPhone 7 ramp and questions about iPhone SE cannibalizing other iPhone models get resolved,” he wrote. Bright Spot For Chip Outlook Samsung sales zoomed on its Galaxy S7 flagship, but pre-orders were likely influenced by free Gear VR (virtual reality) giveaways, Smigie wrote. Huawei, on the other hand, is a “bright spot” and recently guided to 120 million to 140 million units in 2016. The lion’s share of those units will be high-end smartphones, Huawei said. Outside mobile, PC and industrial results have been weak, offsetting some strength in the growing automotive and infotainment arenas — the latter being NXP’s bailiwick following its acquisition of Freescale Semiconductor. But even in the automotive segment, “we have heard concerns from a number of investors on subprime lending,” Smigie wrote. Until those fears level out, automotive-exposed semiconductors could face some headwinds. Respective estimates from industry trackers Gartner and IDC show the PC segment saw 9.6% and 11.5% year-over-year declines in Q1 shipments. And March industrial production fell 0.6% vs. expectations for a 0.1% decline, says Smigie. Smigie notes positively, “we still like many of the stories, however, so all else being equal, on a pullback we could look to get more aggressive again.”