Bethel Finance: Ceva beats analysts revenue and profit forecasts

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Ceva Inc. (Nasdaq:CEVA); LSE:CVA) reported record results on double-digit growth for the fourth quarter and full year of 2011 beating the analysts' revenue and profit forecasts. The company licenses silicon intellectual property solutions and DSP cores for mobile phones, portable devices, and consumer electronics.

Ceva's 2011 revenue rose 34% to $60.2 million from $44.9 million in 2010. Royalty revenue on DSP cores rose 59% to a record $36.4 million from $22.9 million, and licensing revenue from silicon intellectual property solutions rose 10% to $20.2 million from $18.4 million.

GAAP-based rose 63% to $18.6 million ($0.77 per share) in 2011 from $11.4 million in 2010, and non-GAAP net profit rose 86% to $23.5 million ($0.97 per share) from $12.7 million. The company beat the analysts' consensus of earnings per share of $0.93 on $59.1 million revenue.

Fourth quarter revenue rose 22% to $16 million from $13 million for the corresponding quarter of 2010. GAAP-based net profit rose 15% to $4.9 million ($0.20 per share) for the fourth quarter from $4.2 million for the corresponding quarter, and non-GAAP net profit rose 47% to $6.4 million ($0.26 per share) from $4.3 million. The company beat the analysts' consensus of $0.22 earnings per share on $14.9 million revenue.

Ceva's cash and equivalents rose to $165 million at the end of 2011 from $131 million a year earlier.

Ceva CEO Gideon Wertheizer said that the company achieved its strategic goals of strong growth from chipsets and that it extended its technology leadership for DSP cores. "Our customers shipped more than 927 million CEVA-powered basebands during the year, and more than 1 billion CEVA-based chipsets overall," said, adding that shipments of Ceva-powered cellular baseband processor rose for the twelfth consecutive quarter. The chipsets drove company growth in every segment of the wireless market, from low cost feature phones through 4G LTE smartphones and tablets. The company achieved customer wins for smart TV and connectivity applications.

Ceva's share price rose 3.6% in premarket trading on Nasdaq to $29.11, giving a market cap of $680 million, and was unchanged in London at ₤17.50.