Qorvo Inc, a provider of core technologies and RF solutions for mobile, infrastructure and aerospace/defense applications, has reported December-quarter financial results for both RF Micro Devices Inc of Greensboro, NC, USA and TriQuint Semiconductor Inc of Hillsboro, OR, USA, following the merger of the two firms on 1 January. Combined revenue was $742m, up 16.9% on $634.8m last quarter and 33% on $556.2m a year ago.
Individually, for its fiscal third-quarter 2015 (ended 27 December 2014), RFMD's revenue was $397.1m, up 9.5% on $362.7m last quarter and 38% on $288.5m a year ago.
RFMD Fiscal Q3/2014 Q4/2014 Q1/2015 Q2/2015 Q3/2015 Revenue $288.5m $256 $316.3m $362.7m $397.1m
On a non-GAAP basis, gross margin has risen further, from 39.7% a year ago and 48% last quarter to 49.3%. Likewise, net income has risen further, from $36.4m ($0.13 per diluted share) a year ago and $90m ($0.30 per diluted share) last quarter to $108.4m ($0.36 per diluted share, exceeding the guidance of $0.33 per diluted share).
For TriQuint, fourth-quarter 2014 revenue (to end-December) was $344.9m, up 26.8% on $272.1m last quarter and 28.8% on $267.7m a year ago.
TriQuint Fiscal Q4/2013 Q1/2014 Q2/2014 Q3/2014 Q4/2014 Revenue $267.7m $177.6m $230.8m $272.1m $344.9m
On a non-GAAP basis, gross margin has risen further, from 37.2% a year ago and 46.6% last quarter to 48.8%. Likewise, net income has risen further, from $26.4m ($0.16 per diluted share a year ago and $51.4m ($0.28 per diluted share) last quarter to $89.6m ($0.48 per diluted share, exceeding guidance of $0.40-0.45).
For both RFMD and TriQuint, revenue, gross profit, operating income, operating margin and earnings per share were all quarterly records.
Strategic highlights during the quarter are listed as follows:
starting shipments of LowDrift and NoDrift high-performance filters (delivering what is claimed to be unmatched temperature stability to solve challenging band coexistence problems); securing the first major design win for optical applications in the high-growth data-center market; capturing multiple power amplifier (PA), switch and filter design wins on the two leading 4G chipsets for the China market; leveraging broad strength in gallium nitride (GaN) products for the defense market, highlighted by significant design wins in shipboard and land-based international radar programs; beginning volume production of RF Fusion integrated RF front-end solutions for a flagship smartphone anticipated in 2015; releasing what is claimed to be the highest-efficiency 5GHz WiFi PA for customer premises equipment (CPE) applications; and winning a contract (funded by the US Department of Defense) to enhance design and manufacturing capabilities for the Spatium family of high-power, solid-state GaN-based amplifiers, targeting traveling wave tube (TWT) amplifier replacements.
For the March 2015 quarter, Qorvo expects revenue of $615-625m, gross margin of 46-48% and diluted EPS of $0.80-0.90.
"Our March 2015 quarterly guidance implies year-over-year revenue growth of greater than 40%," notes Qorvo's chief financial officer Steve Buhaly. "Our expectations are to outpace the industry growth rate of 10-15% and achieve our target operating model of 50% gross margin, 20% operating expenses, and 30% operating margin," adds president & CEO Bob Bruggeworth.
