What ARM and Broadcom Signal for Smartphone and Tablet Growth

Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) has seen its shares absolutely hammered after the communications chip maker reported earnings that were lackluster and after signaling that revenue would be soft in the coming quarter. Now we have seen many analysts, though not every analyst, throw in the towel. Outright downgrades were seen from BMO Capital Markets, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, RBC Capital Markets and William Blair. We would point out that Canaccord Genuity did say that the pullback is creating an attractive entry point following what it thinks was conservative outlook. Broadcom shares are down 14%, at $27.38 against a 52-week range of $27.07 to $37.85.

ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH) is seeing its shares take a small breather after earnings were strong enough that it raised its dividend. ARM’s chipset designs are licensed and used in an overwhelming majority of smartphones and tablets. ARM shares are down 1.2%, at $41.35 against a 52-week range of $22.22 to $50.56.

What is interesting is that we are seeing Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) shares up marginally, by three cents to $22.78, but this stock was trading at $24.15 last week before Intel’s earnings whiff. Intel is making some ground on entering the smartphone and tablet markets, but this is dominated by ARM and others for the time being and Intel remains a PC play. Intel is also extremely late, embarrassingly so, to this market when you consider how large and dominant it is.

What is acting as a drag on the overall smartphone and tablet market on top of just the iPhone and the iPad is that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) had a real shortfall with its earnings last week. Apple shares may be up close to 6% after earnings so far on Wednesday, but this is still post-earnings trading that has not been off the charts.

The markets for smartphones and tablets is far from peaking. The problem is that the market growth seems to have reached a point that the companies servicing smartphones and tablets have seen their own respective stocks enjoy some significant gains, followed by some atrocious moves back down to reality. When you tally up when the reactions to Broadcom and ARM have been, you have a very clear picture that the growth is not just an infinite ladder up and away to the moon.