Broadcom Inc. continued to produce better results and forecast better near-term sales than Wall Street expects without providing guidance for the long term Thursday, and shares rose in extended trading.
Broadcom $(AVGO)$ reported fiscal first-quarter earnings of $3.77 billion, or $8.80 a share, on sales of $8.91 billion, up from $7.71 billion a year ago. After adjusting for stock-based compensation and other costs, Broadcom reported earnings of $10.33 a share, up from $8.39 a share in the same quarter last year.
Analysts on average were expecting adjusted earnings of $10.17 a share on revenue of $8.9 billion, according to FactSet. Shares rose more than 1% in after-hours trading immediately following the release of the results, after a 0.9% in the regular session to close at $598.65.
Broadcom's stock has held up better than others in the semiconductor sector, which has been bedeviled by a shortage of chips suddenly turning into a glut in the past year. Broadcom showed that it was not immune to those issues in its last quarterly report, though, as the San Jose, Calif.-based chip maker reported a limited outlook and refused to comment on the rest of the year or update analysts on its product backlog.
Broadcom "is not immune from cyclical headwinds," Raymond James analysts cautioned in initiating coverage of semiconductor companies this week. "In particular, it has 30% exposure to enterprise (including semis and software) and 20% to wireless (mostly Apple $(AAPL)$), where we see potential demand slowdown. Upside appears modest, even in a soft-landing scenario."
In Thursday's report, Broadcom guided for second-quarter revenue of roughly $8.7 billion, while analysts on average were expecting $8.58 billion, according to FactSet. Executives again avoided a full annual forecast, with Chief Executive Hock Tan sticking with his approach of just projecting "growth."
"Broadcom's first quarter performance reflects continued strength in infrastructure demand across all our end markets," Tan said in a statement. "Looking ahead, we are confident our growth will be driven by sustained leadership in next generation technologies across all of our core markets, and strong partnerships with our customers."
Tan's yearslong attempt to diversify the company beyond semiconductors has helped avoid the doldrums of the chip sector in this time. Broadcom also sells networking equipment and enterprise-scale storage systems, along with a software division formed through the acquisitions of CA Inc and Symantec, with VMware Inc. $(VMW)$expected to join by October.
Broadcom's chip division -- which includes the networking and storage businesses -- is its largest, reporting $7.11 billion in sales for the fiscal first quarter Thursday, up from $5.87 billion a year ago and beating the average analyst estimate of $7.01 billion, according to FactSet. The software business reported sales of $1.81 billion, down from $1.83 billion a year ago and missing the average analyst estimate of $1.85 billion, per FactSet.
Broadcom shares have gained 1.9% in the past 2 months, as the S&P 500 index has dropped 9.9% and the PHLX Semiconductor index has declined 12.4%.
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