Wolfson Microelectronics Share Discussion Threads

[pjw956] 30/11/2012 20:03

some volume today ?

[domtheone] 22/11/2012 19:35

And WLF still struggle to make a profit.

Probably safe to say this would be 50p if it wasn't for Samsung.

[fabzzz] 22/11/2012 17:17

Despite the recent falls, have to smile at reference to the "Lord of Clontarf Road" here, boards like PET have been most entertaining reading for the neutral bystander over the years....agree with the sentiment however.

Anyway, back to mundane titbit passing on -



Samsung is expected to sell 60 million smartphones this quarter
Thanks to the Galaxy Note 2
By Carly Page
Thu Nov 22 2012, 14:28
Galaxy Note 2 smartphone with S Pen

KOREAN PHONE GIANT Samsung is expected to top 60 million smartphone sales this quarter, thanks to the unexpected popularity of its Galaxy Note 2 smartphone.

That's according to analysts at UBS, which told Korean news agency Yonhap News that it expects Samsung to sell 61.5 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2012, up five percent from its previous estimate of 58 million.

Most surprisingly though, UBS said that this is due to better than expected sales of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 'phablet', not the Samsung Galaxy S3.

"The Galaxy Note 2 has shipped 3 million units in its first five weeks of sales, with sell-through strong in Asia and Europe, and the U.S. gathering pace post-launch," said UBS analyst Nicolas Gaudois.

"We hence forecast 7 million Galaxy Note 2, compared to our initial expectation of 5 million for the fourth quarter."

That's not to say that the Samsung Galaxy S3 isn't still selling like hotcakes. According to UBS, Samsung sold 5.5 million Galaxy S3 handsets in October alone.

"We see a limited ramp-down, if any at all, for the Galaxy S3, and we feel comfortable with our 15 million estimate for the fourth quarter of 2012," Gaudois said.

It looks like Samsung can look forward to reporting yet another record quarter. µ

The Inquirer (

[father o toole] 20/11/2012 20:48

Dom

John Teeling bought over £600k on the open Market of pre, don't think 21k is anything else only a stunt to fool the foolish..

[domtheone] 20/11/2012 19:43

Noticed one of the Directors is already 2.5K down on a 21K purchase only 2 weeks ago.

So much for Director buys being a good sign!

And what's with all those small AT trades!

[domtheone] 20/11/2012 19:35

Just checking in and wow. Hadn't expected such a monster fall. Must be something up...

Well a few volume spikes so someone must have dumped half a million shares or so.

Hopefully they've finished, otherwise it'll be going much much lower (100p) given there is zero demand for shares.

Desperately needs a takeover to save this from oblivion.

Bitterly disappointing. Management just not up to the task having done nothing for shareholder value in 5 years. Reminds me of Sainsburys.

[glyn10] 20/11/2012 08:23

no idea, logic does not seem to apply in regard to WLF share price movement

[pjw956] 19/11/2012 18:59

ftse up over 120 points but no -- wlf slips again ; buying opportunity or ?

[fabzzz] 15/11/2012 20:58

well, you're not alone there - i haven't seen/heard wind of anything that would prompt this trajectory; beats me - lost 30p odd in a week.

[pjw956] 15/11/2012 19:58

something must be going on to drop another 7% today ; err what have I missed?

[fabzzz] 14/11/2012 20:53

not sure what would drive a bounce now given the recent news flows and updates and wider market jitters. it has risen in the past on far less (eg track up to £3 late 2010/early 2011) and collapsed on far worse (back down to £1+ beginning of this year), but this time nada. my instinctive feeling is that it's being held in check. hell what do i know, even rubbish like petrel resources has its day in the sun.

[pjw956] 14/11/2012 19:19

yep - well within; will it bounce again ?

[fabzzz] 14/11/2012 14:57

well within the twilight zone now.

[domtheone] 01/11/2012 21:49

Thanks pjw.

About 55% then given the recent + holdings from Cazenove.

Though 7% or so is held by EBT's

Sure a few of the larger holders were well over 10% each at some stage but they must have got fed up and sold in times gone by.

Gross margin down 1% which i reckon took half a mill of profits.

Gross margin forecast to be a further 2% down in Q4 too.

Revenue expected to be similar in Q4 so marginal profits at best again next quarter.

WLF have deposits/cash of nearly $50Mill.

A 2p div would cost circa $2.5Mill. How about it WLF for long suffering shareholders?

From the results:

- Wolfson's strong revenue and design-in momentum positions the Company well for further strong revenue growth in 2013



Assuming steady margins (they do say a return to normal levels which should be circa 50% then maybe we can expect profit of ? next year.

edit: Volume 450K today! My god. Highest single day in mover 6 months.

Sums up how much interest there is in WLF.

[domtheone] 01/11/2012 21:07

Hope you're right about the t/o

The market clearly aint interested in WLF. Hopefully a bigger company is.

One can only assume that the Apple news was known by some for a while and has been priced into the share price over the last year. Sadly ran out of steam the last few months.

Notice the latest RNS re holdings with someone adding half a million shares or so.

Would be interesting to see all the major holdings in WLF now but can't get free access to that info.

Heaven knows when they'll start making real profits again. Probably worse margins than supermarkets ffs!

[fabzzz] 01/11/2012 17:09

well, some signs of life at least now. yes, would have hoped for more profitability on those numbers, but we'll have to see if the margin level returns over the next couple of quarters as management predict. what this outfit needs is tangible revenue growth and it seems better placed for this than it has for some time, though the dangers are there (ie strip out samsung, smartphones and tablets and it's not so rosy). we'll see. nice to see them firmly embedded with samsung for the moment and still scoring wins from old favourites like MS and amazon.

markets are fickle - cirrus has just reported a decent set of numbers and predicted a strong next quarter (61% of their audio segment revs coming from apple), but it's currently down over 10% in the us. personally, i still think wlf will be taken out by a larger oem, but that is just my own view.

[mrbt] 30/10/2012 16:31

exactly as you said.

[fabzzz] 29/10/2012 12:22

Not that anyone seems to give a monkeys, but WLF's announcement re inclusion in new Galaxy Note ii and 10.1 tab (yes, more good news...) below (put out on Friday to a fanfare of disinterest and apathy) - expect bumper Q3 results and the price to fall.....

Wolfson delivers outstanding audio to Samsung GALAXY Note 10.1 and Samsung GALAXY Note II

Date:
Friday, October 26, 2012

Wolfson Microelectronics plc, a global leader in the design and development of mixed-signal semiconductor solutions for the consumer electronics market, has today announced that its ultra-low power Audio Hub, the WM1811, has been selected by Samsung to provide outstanding audio for its latest tablet device, the GALAXY Note 10.1, and its latest smartphone, the GALAXY Note II.

The GALAXY Note 10.1 and the GALAXY Note II are the latest Samsung devices to feature Wolfson's audio technology inside, with Samsung having previously designed Wolfson's Audio Hubs into several of its leading-edge smartphones including its best-selling Samsung GALAXY S III, and its earlier Wave and GALAXY S smartphones.

With class-leading technology, including an integrated stereo speaker driver and a high output power headphone driver, Wolfson's WM1811 provides crystal-clear audio playback for music and video while minimising power consumption, enabling outstanding high definition audio user experiences with long battery life. Its small size and fully integrated design means the WM1811 requires fewer components than a discrete solution, resulting in a smaller PCB footprint and a reduced bill of materials cost for the manufacturer. The WM1811 also supports a vast range of different architectures and use cases, thanks to its stereo full-duplex asynchronous sample rate conversion and multi-channel digital mixing.

Mike Hickey, CEO of Wolfson, said: "We are delighted that Samsung has chosen Wolfson's audio solution once again, this time for its latest innovative devices, the GALAXY Note 10.1 and GALAXY Note II. Samsung's confidence in our technology is testament to the exceptional quality of our audio solutions, which enable manufacturers to provide consumers with differentiated audio experiences and optimised battery performance."

Powered by Android™ 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), the GALAXY Note 10.1 features a powerful 1.4GHz Exynos quad-core processor, a 10.1-inch LCD display and many additional features such as an innovative S Pen for a natural writing experience. Including a variety of S Note templates and productive tools, Learning Hub for accessing education curricula and creative application Adobe Photoshop® Touch, Samsung GALAXY Note 10.1 is the perfect device for active content creation, productivity and learning.

Samsung GALAXY Note II, powered by Android™ 4.1 (Jelly Bean), is the most powerful smartphone to spark everyone's creative inspirations. It features a powerful 1.6GHz quad-core processor, a 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED screen and many S Pen optimised features including Air View, which allows users to hover with the S Pen over an email, S Planner, image gallery or video to preview the content without having to open it, and Easy Clip which allows users to instantly outline and crop any content on the screen in any shape to save, share or paste.

[fabzzz] 29/10/2012 10:14

ifixit has "torndown" the MS Surface tab and confirmed inclusion of WLF codec -

[domtheone] 15/10/2012 22:00

Just astonished that there is no buying (or selling) here.

There's 116 Million shares in issue and WLF struggles to get to 100K of shares on an RNS today. With Apple rumours too (rightly or wrongly)!

Don't understand it.

[glyn10] 15/10/2012 15:10

Thanks for the informative posts Dom, still plenty of upside in Wolfy !

[domtheone] 15/10/2012 11:57

Wolfson Microelectronics, which makes semiconductors for consumer electronic products, has risen on rumours it is doing business with Apple again.

The company took a hit several years ago when Apple said it would not use the UK company's chips in later generation iPhones and iPads.

However, technology analysts say there is a Wolfson chip in a new adapter for the iPhone 5.

Peel Hunt analyst Alex Jarvis said an ABI Research 'teardown' of the Apple 'Lightning to 30-pin Adapter' revealed a Wolfson audio chip.

"This is a small part and the volume expectations for the adapter are likely to be low, tens of millions per annum – noting that third-party adapters are also on the market," he wrote in a note.

"However, it is a major positive for Wolfson that it is supplying Apple again.

"Apple remains a significant revenue opportunity for audio hubs and MEMS microphones in the future and any news that confirms an improving relationship with Apple is positive.

"It is important for Wolfson to demonstrate that its relationship with Apple is being rehabilitated."

Wolfson gave a non-committal response to the news saying that "along with its peers, operates under strict customer confidentiality clauses and as a result cannot comment on specific customer relationships or projects".

"The company remains comfortable with the current market consensus of financial forecasts, bearing in mind the rate at which designs-ins ramp to volume production," it said.

"It is relevant to mention that any new customer relationship would normally start with relatively modest projects until confidence is built and the relationship develops."

Wolfson's shares were up 3.3% in morning trading on Monday.

[domtheone] 15/10/2012 11:56

Hello...

Wolfson shares jump 3% after signs chipmaker could be back in favour with Apple
UK group lost out in latest iPhone and iPad but analysts say it has a chip in Apple's new adaptor

Wolfson Microelectronics suffered a downturn when Apple said while ago it would no longer use UK company's chips in the later generation iPhone and iPad.

But could the fractured relationship be on the mend?

According to reports Wolfson has an audio chip in the new adaptor Apple is releasing to connect its new generation products to older docks and devices.

Apple's decision to change its connector for the iPhone 5 has proved controversial, annoying customers with the idea they could not hook up old devices to new without paying £25 for the privilege. Third party adapters have appeared to cash in on the situation, but Apple's own Lightening product appears to have more going for it including - according to a breakdown of the component - the aforementioned Wolfson chip. Peel Hunt analyst Alex Jarvis moved his recommendation from hold to buy and said:

An ABI teardown of the Apple Lightning to 30-pin Adapter reveals a Wolfson audio chip (DAC). This is a small part and the volume expectations for the adapter are likely to be low, tens of millions per annum – noting that third-party adapters are also on the market.

However, it is a major positive for Wolfson that it is supplying Apple again. Apple remains a significant revenue opportunity for audio hubs and MEMS microphones in the future and any news that confirms an improving relationship with Apple is positive. It is important for Wolfson to demonstrate that its relationship with Apple is being rehabilitated.
Wolfson has responded to the speculation, saying it seeks to do business with all major global consumer electronic brands, but cited customer confidentiality to avoid discussing specific projects:

It is relevant to mention that any new customer relationship would normally start with relatively modest projects until confidence is built and the relationship develops.
It said it had secured deals with five new smartphone customers this year, and was comfortable with the current market expectations.

But hopes of an Apple boost have lifted its shares 6.5p to 208p, up 3%.