TriQuint's yield loss stunts profit growth
TriQuint's increased sales of GSM handset products have boosted its fourth fiscal quarter revenue by 12.5% sequentially and 26.3% year-on-year to $84.7 million.
However, despite this increase in sales quarterly gross margin has fallen by 2.7% sequentially to 28.7% due to reduced yields associated with new product ramps.
The yield losses have also impacted the company's profit margin, with the $10 million sequential rise in sales increasing quarterly profit by just $0.4 million to $2.9 million.
Commenting on the results for both the recent quarter and fiscal 2005 Ralph Quinsey, TriQuint's CEO, remarked: " During 2005 we absorbed the negative impact of reduced handset IF filter revenue and aggressive pricing pressure while successfully executing our strategy to grow our overall module revenue."
During 2005 TriQuint shipped 15.6 million power amplifier modules and 25.2 million filter based modules.
The company expects year over year revenue growth of 20% in 2006, and quarterly profit to increase to $5-10 million by the end of the year. Revenue for the first quarter is expected to be flat, with new product ramps offsetting a normally down quarter.
