Bullish View From RF Micro
RF Micro Devices
(RFMD)
shares jumped Thursday after top executives predicted the chipmaker will grow faster than its biggest customer, the cell-phone market.
The stock was recently up 58 cents, or 6.6%, to $9.31.
At the Thomas Weisel investment conference in San Francisco, Chief Financial Officer Dean Priddy said RF Micro's sales in 2004 will surpass the handset market as the company boosts its dollar content for each phone manufactured. It aims to do so by rolling out more sophisticated power amplifiers and taking share in cellular transceivers, Priddy said.
RF Micro's content per handset has already increased by about 40% since 2001, he added.
The company's biggest customer,
Nokia
(NOK) - Get Report
, has continued to see strong growth, with handset units up 20% in the December quarter. In its most recent fiscal year, the handset maker accounted for 45% of RF Micro's total revenue.
Market research group IDC predicted that mobile phones will continue to see robust growth in 2004, with units likely to grow in the double digits. In 2003, worldwide handset shipments soared 23% to 533 million, IDC reported earlier this week.