Cirrus Logic Posts Record June-Quarter Revenue as Smartphone Content Cycle Drives Growth
Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ: CRUS) opened its fiscal year with record fiscal first-quarter revenue of $460 million, helped by rising sales of audio and power components into smartphones. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $1.84, also a record for a June quarter, while GAAP EPS was $1.47. Revenue increased 13% from the prior year and 2% sequentially.
Chief Financial Officer Jeff Woolard said revenue landed at the midpoint of the company's guidance range, with growth from smartphone components partly offset by pricing reductions the company had flagged earlier. The print is the latest sign that Cirrus Logic's core audio franchise is still gaining value per device, even as the smartphone market itself shows limited unit growth.
Demand for its custom-boosted amplifiers and smart codecs remains strong, management said, and the company expects those products to continue shipping across multiple future product generations. The largest customer has been in a strong product cycle, which has helped raise the quarterly baseline for the company's audio business.
On a non-GAAP basis, gross profit totaled $242.1 million, translating to a 52.7% gross margin. The margin was down sequentially because of anticipated pricing reductions, but slightly higher year over year on favorable product mix. Higher freight and supply-chain costs offset part of that improvement.
Non-GAAP operating expenses rose to $135.4 million, up $9.3 million sequentially and $15.9 million year over year. Woolard attributed the increase mainly to employee-related costs, R&D investment, variable compensation, product development and professional expenses. Non-GAAP operating income was $106.7 million, or 23.2% of revenue.
For the fiscal second quarter of 2027, Cirrus Logic expects revenue of $510 million to $570 million, GAAP gross margin of 52% to 54%, and non-GAAP operating expenses of $140 million to $146 million. The company projects a full-year non-GAAP effective tax rate of 16% to 18%.
Woolard said September-quarter gross margin should receive a temporary benefit from wafers bought under prior GlobalFoundries agreements at favorable prices. That inventory is expected to largely sell through during the quarter, after which margins should normalize.
Management also said the company's quarterly seasonality is tighter than in past years. June-quarter revenue came in well above historical averages, and executives expect less variation among quarters going forward.
Outside audio, Cirrus Logic highlighted high-performance mixed-signal (HPMS) opportunities in cameras, batteries and power management. The company is developing a next-generation camera controller with its largest customer and remains on schedule with a smart power IC for 3D sensing discussed on the prior earnings call. During the Q&A, management called the HPMS opportunity pipeline "as good as we can remember," citing camera roadmaps, power products delivered to customers, and active programs across phones and non-phone products. One power product is now shipping in tablets; another is intended for an accessory that has not yet reached the market.
On the PC side, Cirrus Logic cut its expectations for the current fiscal year, though management said the PC market remains its largest near-term growth opportunity outside smartphones. The company pointed to constrained supply of a key industry platform, memory and component shortages, pricing pressure, and OEM delays in new PC model introductions. Woolard described the issues as timing-related rather than a fundamental change in competitive standing or customer engagement. Delayed models matter because they generally carry higher content per system and, in some cases, higher expected volumes.
The company also reported strong customer interest in a low-power smart codec for AI-enabled PCs. The device can perform wake-word detection, noise reduction and audio buffering independently, reducing power use and latency compared with relying on a PC's CPU or NPU for always-on voice functions. Cirrus Logic has advanced discussions with multiple customers on designs expected to arrive next calendar year. Several customers also expect to ship PCs later this year based on NVIDIA's RTX Spark platform that include Cirrus Logic amplifiers and codecs.
In general markets, Cirrus Logic taped out a new family of high-performance analog front-end components for smart meters and plans to begin sampling in the September quarter. The parts are designed for higher-accuracy voltage and current measurement, power-quality analysis and fault detection in residential, commercial and industrial settings. Management is targeting a calendar 2028 market launch and is exploring adjacent applications such as energy storage, data-center DC metrology, EV charging and grid monitoring. The company did not provide a market-size estimate.
Cirrus Logic exited the quarter with $1.2 billion in cash and investments and no debt. Operating cash flow was $64.1 million, capital expenditures were $15.5 million, and the company repurchased $34.5 million of stock during the quarter. After the quarter ended, it bought back an additional $50.5 million under a Rule 10b5-1 plan. Woolard said the capital allocation priorities remain unchanged: organic growth first, acquisitions second and share repurchases third. A dividend is not under consideration in the near term.
The company also signed a capacity reservation and wafer supply agreement with GlobalFoundries covering dedicated capacity and pricing for calendar years 2027 and 2028.
Cirrus Logic, headquartered in Austin, Texas, is a fabless semiconductor company specializing in precision analog and mixed-signal processing. Its portfolio includes digital-to-analog converters, analog-to-digital converters, audio codecs, power management ICs, voice processors and integrated amplifiers for smartphones, tablets, wireless headsets and other portable devices.