IoT Leader Demonstrates Strength Across Both Industrial & Commercial and Home & Life Business Units
Silicon Labs (NASDAQ: SLAB), a leader in secure, intelligent wireless technology for a more connected world, reported strong financial results for the first quarter, which ended April 2, 2022. Revenue exceeded the top end of the guidance range at $234 million, up 12% sequentially and 48% year-on-year.
“We are off to an outstanding start in our first full year as the largest pure-play IoT wireless company. We delivered record revenue in the quarter and great operating results,” said Matt Johnson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Silicon Labs. “Demand for our solutions remains strong, and our design win momentum is accelerating across our wireless portfolio and in both our Industrial & Commercial and Home & Life end markets.”
First Quarter Financial Highlights
- Revenue increased to $234 million, up 12% sequentially and 48% year-on-year
- Industrial & Commercial revenue for the quarter was $127 million, up 61% year-on-year
- Home & Life revenue for the quarter was $107 million, up 35% year-on-year
- Gross margin of 67% driven by the one-time financial impact of selling through lower cost inventory purchased prior to 2022
Results on a GAAP basis:
- GAAP gross margin was 67%
- GAAP R&D expenses were $78 million
- GAAP SG&A expenses were $45 million
- GAAP operating income as a percentage of revenue was 14.4%
- GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.58
Results on a non-GAAP basis, excluding the impact of stock compensation, amortization of acquired intangible assets, and certain other items as set forth in the reconciliation tables were as follows:
- Non-GAAP gross margin was 67%
- Non-GAAP R&D expenses were $63 million
- Non-GAAP SG&A expenses were $36 million
- Non-GAAP operating income as a percentage of revenue was 24.3%
- Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share were $1.05
Business Highlights
- Announced and shipped initial samples of the xG24 family of SoCs, which support Matter and bring AI/ML acceleration to battery-powered edge devices. Initial customer response has been strong. The Alpha program sold out with participants representing a range of Smart Home and Industrial applications. For example,
- SensiML is using the xG24’s built-in machine learning accelerator to enable new IoT edge AI/ML applications for their customers. Together, SensiML and Silicon Labs are developing a proof-of-concept demonstration showing door locks using machine learning in audio sensors to detect and distinguish relatively subtle acoustic events to strengthen home security.
- Tuya selected the MG24 to be part of its Tuya IoT development platform to offer a Matter-ready solution with the computing power and RAM needed for the sophisticated systems its customers are designing. More than 510,000 developers use the Tuya platform and Tuya-powered smart devices are sold through 100,000 sales channels worldwide.
- Viessman, a global provider of heating and refrigeration systems, selected MG24 for its low current consumption, which makes it possible to introduce battery-powered heating and refrigeration products for flexible deployments within industrial settings.
- The xG24 performed very well on the important MLCommons Machine Learning and Inference Performance benchmark. With integrated AI/ML hardware acceleration, the xG24 SoCs provided up to 4x faster processing with up to 6x lower power consumption for machine learning workloads. This means even ultra-low-power wireless IoT devices can now be enhanced with machine learning capabilities.
“The xG24 family is just the latest in an impressive line-up of solutions built on our Series 2 platform,” said Johnson. “With Series 2, we’ve been able to increase our R&D efficiency and deliver new products faster, and the market response has been fantastic. Sales of Series 1-based products have been strong. Series 2 sales have taken off even faster, and we have several more Series 2-based products on the horizon.”
- Repurchased $250 million of the company’s shares in the open market thus far in 2022, resulting in the retirement of 1.76 million shares, and the company’s board of directors approved repurchases of up to an additional $350 million of the company’s common stock through the end of 2022.
Business Outlook
The company expects second quarter revenue to be in the range of $245 to $255 million. The company also estimates the following results:
On a GAAP basis:
- GAAP gross margin of approximately 60.9%
- GAAP operating expenses of approximately $129 million
- GAAP effective tax rate of approximately 33%
- GAAP diluted earnings per share to be between $0.37 to $0.47
On a non-GAAP basis, excluding the impact of stock compensation, amortization of acquired intangible assets, and certain other items as set forth in the reconciliation tables:
- Non-GAAP gross margin of approximately 61%
- Non-GAAP operating expenses of approximately $107 million
- Non-GAAP effective tax rate of approximately 26%
- Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share between $0.85 to $0.95
Earnings Webcast and Conference Call
Silicon Labs will host an earnings conference call to discuss the quarterly results and answer questions at 7:30 am CDT today. An audio webcast will be available on Silicon Labs’ website (www.silabs.com) under Investor Relations. In addition, the company will post an audio recording of the event at silabs.com/investors and make a replay available through May 4, 2022, online or by calling (877) 344-7529 (US) or (412) 317-0088 (international) and entering access code 1597850.
For more such updates and perspectives around Digital Innovation, IoT, Data Infrastructure, AI & Cybersecurity, go to AI-Techpark.com.
