Tower Semiconductor beats profit estimates, sees more growth in 2024 (updated)

Tower Semiconductor

09/05/2024 13:49

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    By Steven Scheer
       May 9 (Reuters) - Israeli contract chipmaker Tower
Semiconductor  TSEM.TA  beat quarterly profit and revenue
estimates on Thursday and said it expects improvement throughout
2024 despite weak demand for industrial and automotive chips due
to an economic downturn.
    Tower, which specialises in analogue chips used in cars,
medical sensors and power management, said it earned 46 cents
per diluted share excluding one-off items in the first quarter
of 2024, versus 55 cents a year earlier.
    Revenue slipped to $327 million from $356 million.
    Tower was forecast to earn an adjusted 39 cents a share on
revenue of $324.5 million, LSEG data showed.
    "Everyone is down year over year. It's a weak market," chief
executive Russell Ellwanger told Reuters, citing large declines
in demand for power management and auto chips.
    "For several of the activities we have, we see the first
quarter as having been a low, with some growth coming up beyond
that," he added.
    Ellwanger noted that auto sales are down as a function of
the economy but that in other areas, such as data centres,
customers have scaled back chip purchases since they previously
overbought and now have large inventories. 
    But Tower still needed to boost production capacity, he
said, adding: "There is a lot of uncertainty in the world right
now. Whenever there's uncertainty, consumer buying drops".
    Over the past few quarters, semiconductor firms have been
focused on clearing excess inventory mainly in the automotive
industry, hitting firms like Tower which makes analogue,
mixed-signal chips and sensor technologies.
    French-Italian firm STMicroelectronics  STMPA.PA  is one of
the latest chipmakers to lower its full-year guidance due to
declining orders.
    Ellwanger said Israel's war with Palestinian Hamas militants
was not having a material impact on Tower, which expects
second-quarter revenue of $350 million, with an upward or
downward range of 5%, above analysts' forecasts of $334.8
million.
    He said that Tower sees more than 7% sequential growth for
the second quarter and then "notable growth" in the third and
fourth.
    Its Tel Aviv-listed shares were up 4.7% in afternoon
trading. 

 (Reporting by Priyanka.G in Bengaluru and Steven Scheer in
Jerusalem; editing by Jason Neely and Alexander Smith)
 ((Priyanka.G@thomsonreuters.com;))