News: Microelectronics
19 January 2024
Guerrilla RF’s Q4 revenue almost doubles year-on-year to record $4.7m
For fourth-quarter 2023, Guerrilla RF Inc (GRF) of Greensboro, NC, USA — which develops and manufactures radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) for wireless applications — has reported revenue of $4.7m, up 38% on $3.4m in Q32023 and up 95.8% on $2.4m a year ago.
Full-year revenue has hence grown by 30.2% from 2022’s $11.6m to $15.1m for 2023 (near the upper end of the $14.7–15.2m guidance range), driven by increased orders from automotive and satellite communications (SATCOM) markets.
Revenue for new products (in production for less than three years) reached 22.1% of product revenue in 2023 compared with less than 1% in 2022, reflecting the positive results of previous R&D investments.
Gross margin has grown from 55.7% in Q3/2023 to 56.8% in Q4/2023.
Reflecting the continued impact of existing expense management efforts, operating expense fell by $0.8m (14.4%) from Q3/2023. In particular, R&D expenses were cut by $0.5m to $2.3m. This contributed to operating loss being cut by $1.6m (43.2%) from $3.7m in Q3/2023 to $2.1m in Q4/2023.
During Q4/2023, Guerrilla RF reached a preliminary agreement with its primary lender to extend the loan maturity into 2025, contingent upon the firm achieving certain milestones in first-quarter 2024.
Distribution channel inventory days reached their lowest level in two years, at 50 days as of end-December 2023, leading management to believe that the inventory overhang is behind it.
Consequently, order bookings exceeded $5.1m in Q4/2023, matching the prior record in Q1/2023. Order backlog remained steady quarter-over-quarter, ending 2023 at $6m, but this is up $1.5m on $4.5m at the end of 2022. Subsequent to year-end, due to new orders, backlog rose further, to a record $7.9m on 12 January.
During Q4/2023, Guerrilla RF announced an initial production purchase order (PO) for a point-to-multipoint wireless infrastructure design win. It also announced a first production PO and shipment to the SATCOM market, with a PO from a tier-1 SATCOM company. Guerrilla RF expects 2024 SATCOM revenues to exceed $1m, and the total market opportunity to exceed $560m.
For full-year 2024, Guerrilla RF expects revenue to grow to $21–26m. Also, the continued focus on expense reduction is expected to enable the firm to achieve its operational cash flow breakeven target in 2024.
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Guerrilla RF updates revenue guidance, targeting 30% growth in 2023 and 40% in 2024
