Rambus Q4 Adj Profit Tops View, But Revenues Miss, Issues Weak Revenue Outlook

(RTTNews) - Chip technology interface developer Rambus, Inc. (RMBS) reported Monday a turnaround to profit in the fourth quarter from last year, which was weighed down by goodwill impairment and restructuring charges.

Adjusted earnings per share topped analysts' expectations, while quarterly revenues missed their estimates by a whisker. The company also provided revenue outlook for the first quarter and full-year 2015, both below Street view.

Sunnyvale, California-based Rambus reported net income of $7.84 million or $0.07 per share for the fourth quarter, compared to a net loss of $9.78 million or $0.09 per share in the prior-year quarter.

Excluding items, adjusted net income for the quarter was $16.69 million or $0.14 per share, compared to $16.45 million or $0.14 per share in the year-ago quarter.

On average, four analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.06 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues for the quarter decreased 2 percent to $72.04 million from $73.42 million in the same quarter last year, and missed four Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate of $72.38 million by a whisker.

The company attributed the revenue decline to lower royalty revenue from Samsung and NVIDIA, offset by the royalty revenue from Qualcomm and Micron Technology.

Revenues from royalties declined 8 percent to $64.13 million, while contract revenues more than doubled to $7.91 million in the year-ago quarter.

Operating income for the quarter nearly tripled to $17.59 million from $6.21 million in the prior-year quarter.

Total operating costs and expenses for the quarter decreased 19 percent from the prior-year quarter to $54.46 million.

Looking ahead to the first quarter, Rambus forecasts revenues between $70 million and $75 million for the first quarter and between $300 million and $315 million for the fiscal 2015. Analysts currently expect the company to report revenues of $76.75 million for the first quarter, and $319.09 million for the full-year 2015.

Separately, Rambus announced that its board of directors has approved a new share repurchase program authorizing the repurchase of up to 20 million shares. This new stock repurchase program replaces the existing program and cancels the 5.2 million shares outstanding as part of the previous authorization.

RMBS closed Monday's regular trading at $10.51, down $0.12 or 1.13% on a volume of 0.56 million shares. The stock declined a further $0.30 or 2.85 in after-hours trading.