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Ziv Hammer is joining the leadership team as Executive Vice President to oversee the company's connectivity and sensing division. He brings experience from major chipmakers including Intel and GlobalFoundries, where he worked on developing and selling semiconductor technologies.
This role is central to the company's strategy of licensing out blueprints for wireless chips. While a new executive hire is rarely a reason to buy or sell a stock, Hammer's background at much larger chip firms could help the company improve how it manages its technology and handles its relationships with large customers.
Source: PRNewsWire
StoneX upgraded its rating on the company to Buy. This move comes as the stock trades at about $28, which is significantly lower than the average price target of $46 set by analysts who follow the company.
While one upgrade from a smaller firm does not change the overall picture, it suggests some analysts see the recent price drop as an opportunity. The company is currently trying to grow its royalty fees from AI and wireless designs, and this upgrade reflects a more optimistic view that those efforts will eventually pay off for shareholders.
CEVA is partnering with LG Electronics to create a combined design for Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology. This is a short-range wireless standard, similar to Bluetooth but much more precise, used for things like digital car keys and finding lost items.
This matters because CEVA makes its money by licensing these blueprints to chipmakers and then collecting a fee for every chip sold. The partnership has already signed its first major U.S. semiconductor customer. If this design becomes a standard way for manufacturers to add tracking features to their products, it could help jumpstart the royalty growth that has been flat for the business lately.
Source: PRNewsWire
Oppenheimer lowered its price target for the chip designer from $42 to $38. A price target is what an analyst thinks the stock will be worth in the future. Despite the lower target, the firm kept its outperform rating, which is a signal that they still expect the stock to do better than the rest of the market. This change follows the company's recent earnings report. Even with the reduction, the new $38 target is still well above the current price of about $27. Other analysts are generally more optimistic, with an average target across all firms of about $46.
Source: Oppenheimer
CEVA reported earnings of 8 cents per share, slightly ahead of the 7 cents analysts expected. Total revenue grew 13 percent to $29 million. The standout figure was licensing revenue, which rose 21 percent to its highest level in three years. This is a key sign that the company's strategy of selling blueprints for artificial intelligence and wireless chips is gaining traction with new customers.
Royalty revenue, which is the fee CEVA earns for every chip its customers actually ship, grew only 1 percent compared to last year but rose 17 percent from the previous quarter. For a long-term owner, this sequential jump is the most important detail. It suggests that the slump in the smartphone and electronics markets is fading, and that new automotive and AI programs are finally starting to reach the production lines.
See the full quarter, and how our tracked metrics did
Source: 8-K filing
Management consistently sets a bar they can clear, delivering small beats for nearly two years even as the business itself struggles to find real growth.
| Expectation | |
|---|---|
| EPS | $0.18 |
| Revenue | $33M |