Ceva reports lower Q1 earnings, maintains guidance

Gideon Wertheizer picture: Tamar Matzapi
Gideon Wertheizer picture: Tamar Matzapi

Ceva CEO Gideon Wertheizer: The market experienced excess channel inventory in the low tier smartphone and feature phone markets.

Israeli fabless semiconductor company Ceva Inc. (Nasdaq:CEVA); LSE:CVA) reported revenue for the first quarter of 2018 of $17.6 million, a 17% decrease compared with $21.3 million reported for the first quarter of 2017.

Starting in fiscal year 2018, Ceva will report its earnings under the new revenue recognition standard, ASC 606.

Ceva made a GAAP net loss for the first quarter of 2018 of $2.2 million, which compares with a net profit of $4.1 million reported for the same period in 2017.

Non-GAAP net profit and diluted earnings per share for the first quarter of 2018 were $0.8 million and $0.04, respectively, down from the $6.3 million and $0.28 reported for the first quarter of 2017.

Ceva CEO Gideon Wertheizer said, "Our licensing business continues to perform very well, with fourteen deals signed, including two lead customers each for our new CEVA-NeuPro AI processors and our CEVA-ClearVox noise suppression and beamforming technologies. In our royalty business, the market experienced excess channel inventory in the low tier smartphone and feature phone markets, which resulted in weaker than expected baseband shipments in the first quarter. This was partially offset by continued growth in shipments and revenue from our non-handset baseband customers, increasing 58% and 39%, respectively, over first quarter 2017 actual shipments."

Ceva left its 2018 revenue guidance unchanged at $92 million.

Yaniv Arieli, CFO of Ceva said, "During the quarter, we invested in new cellular IoT technologies to strengthen our position and value-add to customers in this burgeoning market segment. Additionally, the company repurchased approximately $1.5 million of its common stock under our existing share repurchase program. At the end of the quarter, our cash balance, marketable securities and bank deposits totaled $183 million, with no debt."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 10, 2018

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018

Gideon Wertheizer picture: Tamar Matzapi
Gideon Wertheizer picture: Tamar Matzapi
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