New products and the acquisition of SiRF has propelled fourth-quarter sales at CSR up by 41 per cent to $198m year-on-year, and helped the bluetooth chip designer report operating profits of $21.9m (£14m), against fourth-quarter losses of $15m in 2008.
Global positioning system (GPS) specialist SiRF added $68.6m to sales in the fourth quarter and $130m to CSR's full-year revenues, but excluding its contribution group sales into the handset sector, which account for just over half of revenues, dipped by 23 per cent in the 12-month period. However, while severe destocking weighed on sales in the audio and consumer sector - revenues declined by 45.5 per cent to $163m - SiRF has helped drive sales in the automotive and personal navigation device arena up from $51m to $127.3m. In particular, CSR reports increased adoption of bluetooth and GPS into new build cars. Moreover, buoyed by strong design-win momentum in 2009, CSR is confident of winning market share having won more bluetooth design-wins than all its competitors combined last year.
Management's guidance is for first-quarter revenues to come in at between $160m and $175m, above City expectations, so analyst Nick James at Panmure Gordon has raised his 2010 estimates by 5 per cent and is now expecting pre-tax profits of $107m and EPS of 46¢ (loss of $14.2m in 2009).
CSR (CSR) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 468p | MARKET VALUE: | £853.8m | |
| TOUCH: | 468.1-470.9p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 524p | LOW: 164.5p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NIL | PE RATIO: | NA | |
| NET ASSET VALUE*: | 424¢ | NET CASH: | $412m | |
| Year to end Dec | Turnover ($m) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (¢) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 487 | 114 | 67 | nil |
| 2006 | 705 | 154 | 86 | nil |
| 2007 | 849 | 156 | 86 | nil |
| 2008 | 695 | -6 | -5 | nil |
| 2009 | 601 | -14 | -7 | nil |
| % change | -13 | - | - | - |
*Includes intangible assets of $266m or 146¢ per share £1=$1.57 | ||||
