Here it is, halfway through 2007 -- basketball and hockey seasons are behind us and the sleepy summer heat is settling in. The lull before second-quarter earnings gives us a good opportunity to review company performance, so we'll step up to the plate and take a look at wireless communications chipmaker RF Micro Devices
First-half review
RF Micro's stock has been a flop, and is down 6% from the beginning of the year. But this dog was being wagged by a pretty darn big tail -- that of Mo ... Oh wait, I'm not supposed to mention the name of a certain tier-1 handset manufacturer that went wee-wee in RF Micro's cheerios earlier this year. At any rate, the company's sales outlook was affected by weakness in customer demand (cough -- Motorola
That's too bad, because RF Micro has been showing some solid improvements in operations. Margins have been trending upward over the last several quarters, showing that the issues at RF Micro lately have more to do with the external market and not internal operations.
Second-half prospects
To get a peek at what top investors think of RF Micro's prospects going forward, we can tap the Motley Fool CAPS database of investor opinions and ratings. CAPS players currently give the company a less than stellar two-star rating, which the company has held for most of 2007.
With RF Micro being a significant supplier to all the major cellular phone manufacturers, the company is highly exposed to larger industry trends. Indeed, CAPS bears are more concerned with cycles of the larger industry negatively affecting RF Micro than competitors such as Broadcom
For more Foolish insight:
Do you think the pessimism in RF Micro is overdone, or does the community have the company pegged? Give your own opinion in Motley Fool CAPS.
Fool contributor Dave Mock stays on target, even under relentless fire from Imperial fighters. He owns shares of Motorola. He is the author of The Qualcomm Equation. The Fool's disclosure policy uses the force, but only for good.
