Shares of Qorvo (QRVO +0.22%) were clobbered on the stock market after the semiconductor company released its fiscal 2022 second-quarter results on Nov. 3. The stock price crashed 13% following the earnings report as management warned that supply chain disruptions and the chip shortage will wreck the terrific growth momentum that the company has witnessed so far this year.
However, Qorvo's sharp drop has opened an opportunity for savvy investors looking to buy a 5G stock. Let's see why.
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Qorvo's problems won't last forever
Qorvo, which designs, manufactures, and supplies radio-frequency (RF) systems for applications that drive wireless and broadband communications, reported impressive Q2 results. Its revenue jumped 18% year over year to $1.26 billion, while diluted earnings increased nearly 41% to $3.42 per share. The numbers were better than Wall Street's expectations of $3.25 in earnings per share on $1.25 billion in revenue.
The mobile business was the main pillar of Qorvo's growth last quarter as it recorded a 32% year-over-year jump in revenue to $996 million, accounting for 79% of the top line. This wasn't surprising, as Qorvo's RF chips are used by a wide range of smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Apple (AAPL +2.59%), Honor, OPPO, Pixel, Samsung, Vivo, and Xiaomi -- which are among the top smartphone suppliers globally.
According to technology market research firm Canalys, Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, Vivo, and OPPO accounted for a 72% share of the smartphone market in the third quarter of 2021. As a result, Qorvo is in a solid position to tap into the tremendous 5G smartphone opportunity.
IDC estimates that 5G smartphones will account for 69% of overall smartphone sales in 2025, compared to 40% in 2021. Global smartphone shipments are expected to increase to 1.54 billion units in 2025 from 1.38 billion units this year, so the 5G smartphone space presents a secular growth opportunity for Qorvo. What's more, Qorvo points out that a 5G device carries $5 to $7 of additional RF content on average over a 4G device.
All of this indicates that Qorvo's mobile business is set up for robust long-term growth thanks to a combination of strong clientele, higher volumes, and more revenue from each smartphone. This is what investors need to look at instead of the near-term challenges that are weighing on Qorvo.
The chipmaker's guidance turned out to be way off expectations on account of supply-related constraints. It expects $1.09 billion to $1.12 billion in revenue this quarter, which would be flat compared to the year-ago period's revenue of $1.1 billion.
Qorvo CFO Mark Murphy explained this on the latest earnings conference call:
Starting with supply, we have several areas of constraint. Our external supply chain is still recovering from disruptions in September, including shutdowns in Southeast Asia. Beyond that, select materials, products and production capacity remain tight. These are industrywide issues affecting all suppliers, and our customers are challenged in producing matched sets for products. For example, in smartphones even where channel inventory for certain parts is healthy, customers lack silicon chips to produce phones.
Qorvo's biggest customer, Apple, is an example of how the chip shortage is impacting smartphone manufacturers. The iPhone maker accounted for 30% of Qorvo's revenue last fiscal year. Apple is reportedly slashing iPhone 13 production by 10 million units this year, falling short of its estimated 90 million target by a substantial margin.
Not surprisingly, Qorvo's mobile business is expected to lose momentum in the final quarter of 2021. The segment's revenue is expected to fall 17% sequentially to $830 million, and remain flat compared to the prior-year period. This led investors to dump Qorvo stock -- but as we saw above, the company's long-term prospects are bright, and it could easily regain its mojo.
Time to buy
Qorvo's latest pullback has made the stock dirt cheap. It is trading at just 16 times trailing earnings and 13 times next year's earnings. These multiples are attractive considering that the S&P 500 has a price-to-earnings multiple of 29.
Finally, Qorvo's earnings are expected to grow at an annual pace of over 15% for the next five years, which makes it an ideal bet for investors looking to buy a 5G stock on the cheap.
