SWKS Skyworks Solutions Inc

Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (SWKS) recently announced certain changes at executive management level. 

 

Liam Griffin, who is currently serving as executive vice president and general manager of Skyworks’ high performance analog business, will now hold the office of executive vice president and corporate general manager. Griffin joined the company in 2001 as Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing. 

 

Griffin is set to step into the shoes of Gregory Waters who joined Skyworks in 2003 and has served as the Executive Vice President and General Manager, Front-End Solutions since October 2006. Gregory will be leaving Skyworks following a transition period. 

 

In the new role, Griffin will be responsible for enhancing product line performance, leverage organizational synergies and best to capitalize on market opportunities for all of Skyworks’ business units. 

 

Skyworks expects this move to increase collaborations between its front-end solutions and high performance analog teams, thereby driving the development of next-generation solutions and establishing the company as a market leader. 

 

As most customers look for higher levels of analog and RF integration and  place greater value on total solutions, Skyworks plans to align all its teams to create a more integrated and rapid development cycle for its next-generation products. 

 

Skyworks continues to capitalize on global mobile connectivity ubiquity and demand for high performance analog solutions across a diverse set of vertical markets. The company is rapidly expanding its footprint in complementary new verticals like automotive, medical and connected home.  Skyworks continues to gain market share in adjacent vertical markets like automotive, medical, avionics, military, location services and broadband communications.

 

In addition, RF content per device continues to rise on the remarkable increase in the number of LTE-enabled devices and a major smartphone upgrade cycle in the emerging markets like China. Skyworks is actively participating in developing activities, which support major 2013 phone models that incorporate entirely new LTE bands like 9 and 10; 18, 19 and 38, 41,  to support deployments in Europe and Asia, which shall result in incremental addressable content.

 

 However, the near-term environment remains challenging for Skyworks and its peers like TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT) and RF Micro Devices (RFMD). 

 

Hence, we continue to maintain our Neutral recommendation on Skyworks in the long run. However, the near-term weakness forces us to confer a Zacks #4 Rank on Skyworks, which translates into a short-term rating of Sell.