What happened

Shares of Skyworks Solutions (SWKS 1.81%) have dropped today, down by 2% as of 12:30 p.m. EST, after the company reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. The results and guidance destroyed expectations, but investors may have already been pricing in a busy holiday season for the prominent Apple supplier. The stock was down as much as 5% earlier in the session.

So what

Revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter was $956.8 million, easily beating the consensus estimate of $840.6 million. That resulted in adjusted earnings per share of $1.85, crushing Wall Street's expectation of $1.52 per share in adjusted profits. Apple, which represented over half of Skyworks' revenue last fiscal year, ramped production of its new iPhone 12 lineup during the quarter.

Two iPhone 12 units in black

Apple is Skyworks' largest customer. Image source: Apple.

"Skyworks significantly exceeded September quarter expectations in revenue and earnings per share, capping off a fiscal year that both tested and demonstrated the resilience of our business model," CEO Liam Griffin said in a statement. "With 5G technology launches now well under way, we are ramping our innovative Sky5 solutions in a rapidly expanding set of end markets, from mobile to IoT, automotive and wireless infrastructure."

Now what

Skyworks also issued strong guidance for the fiscal first quarter. Revenue is forecast in the range of $1.04 billion to $1.07 billion, ahead of the consensus estimate of $931.5 million. Adjusted earnings per share is expected to be $2.06 based on the midpoint of the sales outlook. Analysts are modeling for just $1.80 per share in adjusted profits.

"We expect double-digit sequential revenue and earnings growth in the December quarter, fueled by content gains and product ramps across multiple 5G-enabled smartphone platforms and increased demand across our broad markets portfolio," CFO Kris Sennesael commented.