DURHAM — Wolfspeed shares surged in after-hours trading Monday after the semiconductor company reported a big loss – but smaller than expected – and a financial outlook that investors apparently liked. Plus its CEO remains bullish about the future as production ramps up across existing and upcoming plants.
“We kicked off our fiscal year with a strong quarter in both execution and market share. Not only have we continued to win in the marketplace, as evidenced by our third highest quarter of [product] design-ins and a record quarter of design-wins, we have clear focus on the ramp of our Mohawk Valley Fab,” said Wolfspeed CEO Gregg Lowe in a statement.
Mohawk is the company’s new semiconductor factory in New York.
Share traded at $31.78, up $4.06 or 14.65% early Tuesday.
Losses came in at $402.7 million, or 53 cents a share, for its fiscal first quarter but shares (NYSE: WOLF) climbed anyway.
The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 68 cents per share.
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Wolfspeed posted revenue of $197.4 million in the period, missing Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $202.2 million.
For the current quarter ending in December, Wolfspeed expects its results to range from a loss of 70 cents per share to a loss of 56 cents per share.
The company said it expects revenue in the range of $192 million to $222 million for the fiscal second quarter.
CEO’s overview
In a lengthy statement issued with the financial report Lowe spelled out his views on the state of the company.
“At Mohawk Valley, we have an outstanding operations team in place, Building 10 on our Durham campus is producing enough 200mm wafers ahead of the needs of Mohawk Valley, and we already have enough qualified product to satisfy our 20 percent utilization goals,” Lowe said.
“We remain steadfast in our long-term vision for the future of this industry. The market opportunity for silicon carbide stands at $6 billion today, up from $400 million just five years ago. This further validates our strategy to invest now to capitalize on the immense opportunities at-hand, and the significant opportunity in the future.
“We have amassed significant materials expertise over the decades, which combined with the capacity of our new materials factory in Siler City [N.C.], will increase our wafer production by 10x when fully operational, and creates significant competitive advantages over our peers and new entrants.
Wolfspeed is selling its radio frequency business for $125 million
“We will be better positioned to support our customers’ needs going forward and cater to a whole host of new applications for silicon carbide technology. As the only pure-play silicon carbide company in the market today, we believe that we are best positioned to capitalize on a decades long tailwind that represents a $20 billion addressable market by 2030.”
The Durham-based semiconductor and power supply company said it had a loss of $3.22 per share. Losses, adjusted to account for discontinued operations and pretax expenses, came to 53 cents per share.
Read the full financials online here.
The company also said it expects to close its $125 million sale of its radio frequency [RF] product line to MACOM Technology Solutions before year’s end.
