Why Ambarella Is Friday’s Big Earnings Winner

Technology

Published: November 30, 2018 11:15 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 2:17 pm

When Ambarella Inc. (NASDAQ: AMBA) reported its fiscal third-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Thursday, the company said that it had $0.21 in earnings per share (EPS) and $57.3 million in revenue. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters had called for $0.09 in EPS and $57.1 million in revenue, and it the same period of last year it said it had $0.75 per share and $89.06 million.

In the third quarter of fiscal 2019, the company repurchased a total of 825,191 shares for total consideration of roughly $30.8 million. Under the $100.0 million repurchase program that commenced on June 5, 2018, the company has repurchased a total of 1,687,996 shares for total cash consideration of about $64.6 million through October 31.

Total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities were $348.6 million at the end of the third fiscal quarter, compared with $414.0 million at the end of the same quarter a year ago.

Looking ahead to the fiscal fourth quarter, the company expects to see revenues of $51.0 million, plus or minus 3%, and gross margin is expected to be in the range of 59.0% to 60.5%

Fermi Wang, president and CEO, commented:

The short term revenue outlook continues to be under pressure as our business shifts away from consumer electronic applications and faces geopolitical and macroeconomic challenges, as we have previously discussed. We are, however, very encouraged with our strategy and position at the forefront of the nascent computer vision market. Less than 1 year after sampling our first computer vision device we continue to achieve major product and market development milestones. In the third fiscal quarter we realized our first computer vision design wins in the automotive market and in the current quarter we expect our first mass production computer vision revenue from the professional surveillance camera market.

Shares of Ambarella were last seen up 17% at $39.61, with a 52-week range of $30.00 to $66.23. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $42.78.