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Qorvo Inc

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Qorvo supplies innovative semiconductor solutions that make a better world possible. We combine product and technology leadership, systems-level expertise and global manufacturing scale to quickly solve our customers’ most complex technical challenges. Qorvo serves diverse high-growth segments of large global markets, including automotive, consumer, defense & aerospace, industrial & enterprise, infrastructure and mobile. Visit www.qorvo.com to learn how our diverse and innovative team is helping connect, protect and power our planet. Qorvo is a registered trademark of Qorvo, Inc. in the U.S. and in other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Generated $3.8 in free cash flow for every $1 of capital expenditure in FY25.

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$87.80

+3.72%

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$31.97

63.6% overvalued
Profile
Valuation (TTM)
Market Cap$8.11B
P/E23.82
EV$7.51B
P/B2.39
Shares Out92.40M
P/Sales2.17
Revenue$3.74B
EV/EBITDA11.31

Qorvo Inc (QRVO) — Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Apr 5, 202613 speakers5,794 words41 segments

Original transcript

DD
Douglas DeLietoVice President, Investor Relations

Thanks very much. Hello everyone and welcome to Qorvo's fiscal 2024 fourth quarter earnings call. This call will include forward-looking statements that involve risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from management's current expectations. We encourage you to read the safe harbor statement contained in the earnings release published today, as well as the risk factors associated with our business in our annual report on form 10-K filed with the SEC because these risk factors may affect our operations and financial results. In today's release and on today's call, we provide both GAAP and non-GAAP financial results. We provide this supplemental information to enable investors to perform additional comparisons of operating results and to analyze financial performance without the impact of certain non-cash expenses or other items that may obscure trends in our underlying performance. During our call, our comments and comparisons to income statement items will be based primarily on non-GAAP results. For complete reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures, please refer to our earnings release issued earlier today, available on our Investor Relations website at ir.qorvo.com, under Financial Releases. Joining us today are Bob Bruggeworth, President and CEO; Grant Brown, CFO; Dave Fullwood, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing and other members of Qorvo's management team. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Bob.

BB
Bob BruggeworthPresident and CEO

Thanks, Doug, and welcome everyone to Qorvo's fiscal 2024 fourth quarter call. I'd like to begin by reminding our audience that we issued a press release last week announcing the date of our upcoming Qorvo 2024 Investor Day. The event will be held June 11. It will be webcast for all audiences and it will begin at 08:30 a.m. Eastern. Our last Investor Day was in 2018, and we're very excited to discuss in detail our expanded opportunities and our enthusiasm for the future. Across our businesses, Qorvo is at the forefront of global secular macro trends, including mobility, connectivity, electrification and datafication. These macro trends are enabling new applications and new user experiences, many of which are made accessible to you by the company's Qorvo supplies and the devices we enable. Our customers continually seek to improve key performance parameters such as power output, current consumed, talk time, battery life and time between charges. This is happening across our markets in aerospace and defense, automotive, consumer, infrastructure, industrial and enterprise. It is increasing customer focus on power efficiency, throughput, functional density, form factor and other areas where Qorvo delivers a significant competitive advantage. Complementing this, legacy technologies are transitioning to more advanced technologies like active electronic scanning systems, advanced power management, force sensing touch sensors, RF MEMS, and a range of system-on-a-chip and system-in-a-package solutions to improve performance and enhance functionality. Also, new connectivity protocols are being adopted across our businesses, including 5G advance, DOCSIS 4.0, Wi-Fi 6, 6E and 7, Matter and ultra-wideband. Qorvo is driving innovation to enable these trends, while expanding our capabilities and product offerings to target a growing set of opportunities. Now let's turn to the strategic highlights beginning with HPA. HPA returned to year-over-year growth in the March quarter, supported by strong sequential growth in defense and aerospace and continued improvement in end markets other than base station. In defense and aerospace, we're very pleased to have completed the acquisition of Anokiwave in the March quarter. The Anokiwave team brings robust capabilities and high-performance integrated silicon ICs for intelligent active array antennas. Their commercially proven portfolio includes silicon beam-forming ICs and IF to RF conversion solutions which are complementary to our transmit/receive RF front ends for SATCOM, D&A, 5G and other beam-forming applications. Record annual and March quarterly revenue in D&A was driven by large defense programs and SATCOM growth. The D&A content opportunity for Qorvo is especially strong in phased array, where our solutions can enable transmit/receive elements. Phased array radars can contain hundreds, up to tens of thousands of transmit/receive elements per system, underscoring the multiplier effect for Qorvo. Adding to this, we are developing more highly integrated placements that combine Anokiwave solutions with our existing RF and power management IC portfolios. Design wins for the quarter spanned airborne and shipborne radars, SATCOM applications and solid-state PA products. We secured our first design win for BAW-based filter bank solution that enables new architectures for large defense customers. In low earth orbit SATCOM applications, we are engaged to supply multiple Qorvo products including LNAs, switches, mixers and BAW multiplexers to support ubiquitous, non-terrestrial connectivity. Turning to power management, we are investing to expand our reach in markets where Qorvo enjoys long-standing customer relationships such as consumer, D&A and mobile, while also targeting more fragmented and more diverse industrial markets. During the March quarter, we secured a motor control design win and a power tool platform with a leading manufacturer of residential and commercial lawn and garden products. We also secured new PMIC designs at new and existing solid-state drive customers. Looking more closely at power management opportunities in mobile, there are increasing requirements for compute and processing power in the device that are creating new growth vectors for Qorvo PMICs. The opportunity is significant in both volume and content, and we are able to leverage our exceptional customer and ecosystem relationships. Qorvo is a recognized leader, delivering RF solutions, addressing customer challenges related to efficiency, functional density and power consumption. Our RF power management portfolio includes envelope tracking, average power tracking. Beyond RF power management, there are incremental power management opportunities in the phone where Qorvo is leveraging our expertise to reduce current consumption, improve battery life and better accommodate more data-intensive use cases. We have very strong power management IP that can be extended across markets, making our PMIC portfolio an engine for diversification, growth and profitability. We are also extending our reach in broad markets by building out more ways to engage with existing and new customers, such as our recently launched QSPICE analog and mixed signal circuit design and simulation tool. QSPICE has gained quick traction with engineers by providing them measurable improvements in speed, functionality and reliability of circuit simulation. Since its launch, QSPICE has surpassed 20,000 unique downloads. In power devices, customers continue to transition from silicon to silicon carbide and design activity for Qorvo remained strong in our target markets. We continue to secure design wins for high-density server power supplies and added a second Tier 1 North American server OEM during the quarter. In infrastructure markets, Qorvo is leading the transition from DOCSIS 3.1 to DOCSIS 4.0 with a broad portfolio of products. DOCSIS 4.0 will increase the efficiency of existing infrastructure and significantly enhance the user experience. DOCSIS 4.0 will support download speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second and increase upload speeds by four times compared to DOCSIS 3.1 to six gigabits per second. In our base station business, customers continue to award Qorvo design wins, however, we expect the demand environment to remain weak. Longer-term, we are very pleased to have been selected by a European-based OEM to support their 6G development efforts. Turning to CSG, we are supporting increasing number of applications requiring the security and precision location awareness of our ultra-wideband solutions across mobile, consumer, automotive and other markets. In mobile, our ultra-wideband placements are among many Qorvo's solutions supplied to Samsung in support of their Galaxy S24 flagship brand. In consumer markets, recent wins include a robotic lawn mower that leverages Qorvo's ultra-wideband to provide the precision location accuracy required to enable this application. In automotive, customer engagements are expanding to enable a range of applications that leverage Qorvo's ultra-wideband radar capabilities. Automotive applications for ultra-wideband technology include secure access and digital key, as well as kick sensors and the reliable detection of both intrusion and occupancy. During the quarter, customer activity included an ultra-wideband design win enabling secure access for an EV manufacturer in North America. In other automotive applications, we were selected to supply automotive Wi-Fi 6E solutions in support of a different North American EV OEM. We were also selected to supply our V2X solution for an automotive OEM in Europe on a platform ramping in calendar '25. For an EV OEM in Asia, Qorvo was selected to enable their 5G network access device with six solutions, each of which contain our low-band, mid-high-band, ultra-high-band, diversity receive, average power tracker and high-performance BAW filtering. Production for this program begins this year and the win is noteworthy as this 5G reference design will be marketed to additional automotive OEMs and Tier 1s. For Wi-Fi markets, we continue to roll out new technologies and solutions. We are migrating our newest and most advanced BAW technology across our Wi-Fi portfolio. We launched 6 GHz Wi-Fi 7 filters using our next-generation BAW and we will soon launch Wi-Fi 7 iFEMs that combine our next-generation BAW with our PA, switch and LNA content in a single placement. We also ramped our newest Wi-Fi 7 long non-linear FEMs for a Tier 1 network operator in the US and we sampled next-generation, high-efficiency Wi-Fi 7 FEMs aligning with a leading mobile Wi-Fi chipset. Connected home applications, we also began sampling our next-generation Matter SoC and we secured a design win with a leading network operator in the US to supply our BLE/Zigbee SoC to remote controls for home gateways. In force sensing touch sensors, we expanded our engagements in trackpads and other consumer applications. In ACG, Qorvo is unique in our opportunity to drive growth across major smartphone OEMs. Our largest opportunity remains dollar content gains at our largest customer. We have clearly invested to grow this account to represent a larger percentage of Qorvo's revenue, and our continuing investments today reflect our confidence in our multi-year growth opportunity. Within the Android ecosystem, mass market smartphones are set to transition to 5G throughout the decade. We are the primary RF supplier to the Android ecosystem, and our strong roadmap and multi-year collaboration positions us to benefit as the Android ecosystem continues to transition to 5G. During the quarter, Qorvo supported Galaxy S24 launch with our low-band, mid-high-band, ultra-high-band, secondary transmit and receive, tuning, Wi-Fi and ultra-wideband solutions. This highlights the strength of our portfolio and the breadth of our opportunity at Samsung and we are pleased to support them across their flagship and mass market 5G smartphones. For mass market Android 5G smartphones, we see strong pull for our recently launched low, mid, high-band PAD. Qorvo's LMH solution reduces surface area by 40% by combining in one placement the low, mid and high-band main PAD content traditionally offered in two placements. We have expanded customer engagements to include the top four China-based 5G Android OEMs, and volume shipments are set to commence this calendar year. To broadly support all customers with best-in-class portfolios, we continue to advance new technologies across our products. We are proliferating our next-generation BAW technology across high-performance discrete and integrated solutions. We also recently released a next-generation LRT SAW process to complement our advanced BAW and SAW processes in select bands. The first module combining our LRT SAW and BAW filters will support a flagship launch later this summer. In summary, the increasing emphasis on throughput, efficiency and size in Qorvo's markets is growing the content opportunity and demand for better performing, smaller, more highly-integrated RF and power solutions. For customers in automotive, consumer, defense and aerospace, industrial and enterprise and broad markets, we are leveraging core strengths including our manufacturing scale, system-level expertise and advanced packaging capabilities to expand our RF and power product portfolios and deliver outsized growth. For customers in the mobile market, we are addressing new product categories and expanding our SAM across tiers from the flagship tier to the mass market 5G tier, to capture a growing percentage of the total opportunity. And with that, I'll hand it off to Grant.

GB
Grant BrownCFO

Thanks, Bob, and good afternoon everyone. Revenue for the quarter was $941 million, non-GAAP gross margin was 42.5%, and non-GAAP diluted EPS was $1.39, all exceeding the midpoint of our guidance range. Revenue for fiscal Q4 increased approximately 49% year-over-year. As communicated last quarter, improving customer demand in HPA supported a return to year-over-year growth. HPA revenue grew 24% year-over-year in the March quarter, driven by a stronger than anticipated performance in our defense business. In ACG, revenue grew 56% year-over-year in the March quarter, supported by strong content on multiple large customer platforms. In CSG, we delivered 50% year-over-year growth and our fourth consecutive quarter of sequential growth due to strength in Wi-Fi, automotive and other areas. Consistent with our prior comments, non-GAAP gross margin of 42.5% for the March quarter reflected a higher percentage of Android 5G mass market product, which was manufactured during periods of lower factory utilization. Non-GAAP operating expenses in the quarter were $253 million. We continue to invest in new product development to drive multi-year growth across our businesses. Alongside our growth-oriented investments, we're investing to upgrade the core systems and processes we use to run our business. This multi-year initiative is intended to extend our competitive advantage and enable us to scale growth in diverse dynamic markets. Our goal is to increase operational efficiency, unlock internal data to leverage new software capabilities, including AI, and support our broad-based growth objectives. We expect this initiative will span approximately three years and we will present the spend in other operating expenses on our non-GAAP P&L. As we progress through the project, we will provide related expense guidance on a quarterly basis. Turning to the cash flow statement, in fiscal Q4, we generated operating cash flow of $202 million and capital expenditures for the period were $33 million. Notable cash flow items that occurred during the quarter included the closing of the Anokiwave transaction recorded in investing cash flows and payment of the termination fee associated with a long-term silicon supply agreement recorded in operating cash flows. We repurchased approximately $100 million of stock at $112 per share in the quarter, which brought our total for fiscal '24 to $400 million at an average price of $101 per share. The rate and pace of our share repurchases considers several key factors, including our long-term financial outlook, free cash flow, debt maturities, alternative uses of cash and other relevant strategic considerations. This approach ensures that our capital allocation strategy balances future growth with the return of capital and aligns with our underlying goal of delivering long-term shareholder value. On the balance sheet, as of quarter-end, we had approximately $1.5 billion of long-term debt and over $1 billion of cash and equivalents. Regarding balance sheet presentation, the 2024 notes are classified as current and will mature in December. Subject to changes in the interest rate environment and other factors, we currently expect to retire these short-term notes later this year. In line with the expectations shared during our previous earnings call, we successfully reduced our net inventory balance over the period. We ended the quarter with a net inventory balance of $711 million, a sequential decrease of $16 million. For the full year, revenue was $3.8 billion, non-GAAP gross margin was 44.5%, and non-GAAP EPS was $6.21. In fiscal '24, we had two 10% customers. Our largest customer represented 46% of revenue, up from 37% in fiscal 2023, and our second largest customer was consistent year-over-year at 12% of revenue. Turning to our current quarter outlook, we expect revenue of approximately $850 million, plus or minus $25 million, non-GAAP gross margin between 40% and 41%, and non-GAAP diluted EPS between $0.60 and $0.80. Relative to March, we expect June gross margin to reflect a higher percentage of Android 5G mass market product that was manufactured during periods of lower utilization. As these higher-cost inventories sell through, it paves the way for future gross margins that reflect increasing levels of utilization. We expect gross margin in the June quarter to be the low point for the year and improve substantially in the September quarter. We continue to expect full-year gross margin to improve modestly year-on-year. We project non-GAAP operating expenses in the June quarter will be approximately $260 million with variability related to the timing of program development spend and other factors. Our OpEx guidance for this quarter includes approximately $5 million of other operating expense related to modernizing our core systems and business processes. During fiscal '25, we expect to record approximately $40 million of expense related to this project, with quarterly variability related to the achievement of progress-based milestones. Below the operating income line, non-operating expense is expected to be between $6 million and $10 million, reflecting interest paid on our fixed-rate debt offset by interest income earned on our cash balances, FX gains or losses along with other items. Our non-GAAP tax rate for fiscal 2025 is expected to be within a range of 10% to 12%. We project this will increase over time due to changes in tax legislation such as the global minimum tax and other factors. Regarding the divestiture of our Beijing and Dezhou assembly and test facilities, we made significant progress towards achieving operational readiness and completing other work required to close the transaction. This is a further step in our ongoing efforts to reduce capital intensity and we continue to expect the transaction to close this quarter. We are efficiently managing a complex supply chain, including internal factories that are critical differentiators for each of our operating segments, and this will remain an ongoing focus. We'll leverage internal manufacturing where it uniquely differentiates our products and outsource production where we maintain a strong network of foundry and OSAT partners. Qorvo is well-positioned to capitalize on multiple long-term growth drivers within each of our three operating segments. We're excited to share more during our upcoming Investor Day in June and we look forward to your participation.

Operator

We will now start the question-and-answer session. Your first question comes from Ruben Roy with Stifel.

O
RR
Ruben RoyAnalyst

Thank you very much. Hi, Grant, I wanted to see if you could elaborate on the guidance mentioned in the press release for June. Specifically, I would like to know more about what is happening with ACG and the defense following the strong quarter in March. Could you walk us through the key factors in the three segments as we consider the guidance for the June quarter?

GB
Grant BrownCFO

Thank you for the question, Ruben. I'll begin with the guidance for the June quarter and then we'll go into the individual segments. The expected decline in revenue guidance for the June quarter mostly relates to the ramp patterns of our two largest customers at ACG. Additionally, within HPA, the seasonal timing of major defense programs and a slower rollout of DOCSIS 4.0 are factors, as we've mentioned before. Specifically, ACG is anticipated to decline in the high single digits in June, HPA is projected to decline in the low double digits, and CSG is expected to remain approximately flat. Reflecting on ACG, we don’t disclose customer percentages quarterly, but I noted earlier that our largest customer accounted for about 46% of total fiscal '24 revenue, an increase from 37% in '23 and 33% in fiscal '22. This growth in customer contribution heightens our revenue exposure to the seasonal ramp patterns of our largest customers, which is affecting the June quarter. Similarly, HPA is experiencing a seasonal dynamic. We have effectively expanded our revenue base in defense and aerospace, which now represents the largest share of HPA revenue and actually set a record in fiscal Q4. While we anticipate growth in our D&A business year-on-year in fiscal '25, program timing and seasonality are significantly influencing our sequential performance in the June quarter, particularly due to HPA's size. Regarding gross margin, we foresee a considerable improvement in September as we sell through most of the high-cost inventory in June, and we continue to expect a modest increase in full-year fiscal '25 gross margin compared to '24.

RR
Ruben RoyAnalyst

That's great. Thank you, Grant, for that detail. As a follow-up, in the press release, you mentioned your perspective on modest growth, expecting modest growth in 2025 over 2024. I’m curious if anything has changed in your thinking since we’re 90 days into the New Year. Last quarter, you indicated that it would be reasonable to expect growth in fiscal 2025 over 2024. Have there been any shifts in your view regarding growth, inventory levels, or sell-through demand? Thank you.

GB
Grant BrownCFO

Sure. We still maintain our perspective on inventory, particularly channel inventory in the Android segment, which appears to be relatively clear. I anticipate that June will mark the last quarter where we discuss high-cost inventory and the related underutilization impact. This is one timing change we haven't addressed previously. Regarding fiscal '25, it’s a bit early to offer specific quarterly guidance. However, barring any macroeconomic disruptions, we expect to see modest growth in both revenue and gross margin on a year-over-year basis for the full fiscal year. It's important to note that the timing of content gains from our largest customer and the success in the defense market will align our revenue seasonality more closely with annual ramp profiles. This is reflected in our guidance for Q1 and will carry through the entire fiscal year. We project strong sequential revenue growth in September and modest sequential growth in December, with the revenue profile showing sequential growth in defense starting in September and becoming even stronger in December. Therefore, unlike fiscal '24, we anticipate a larger December than September due to robust performance in defense. For gross margins, we expect significant improvement in September, roughly stable in December, and a slight decline in March, indicating a similar seasonal pattern. Overall, we are likely looking at a full fiscal year gross margin in the mid-40s for fiscal '25.

Operator

Your next question comes from Karl Ackerman with BNP Paribas.

O
KA
Karl AckermanAnalyst

Thank you. Grant, I want to follow-up to the gross margin question that you just spoke about. I guess, is the lower gross margin guide driven by seasonally stronger Android sales in June? And then, while gross margins increased in September, does that suggest Android is weaker in the second half? I ask because while your peer this evening said that China Android rose 40% year-over-year in the first half, there have been some conflicting data points on Android demand in the second half. So, if you could clarify that, that would be helpful.

GB
Grant BrownCFO

Yeah, sure. So, in terms of gross margin, I think, in any given quarter, it's heavily dependent on mix, as you're pointing out, right? There's variability by end market and product category. But as I look at the manufacturing costs associated with what we're selling, any underutilization impact is going to be impacted by when the products are manufactured and where they're manufactured. So, for Qorvo, when matters, because the utilization rate at the time it's produced, and where matters because of where the products contain higher content from external foundries or OSATs are less impacted by our internal loadings. So, for June, our gross margin guidance really reflects, I guess, primarily three things. First, we're actively selling through the higher-cost inventories burdened by the underutilization. This is somewhat of an artifact of past underutilization. The second is that we see the typical seasonal decline in our largest customer, as I mentioned, and those products contain higher levels of external content. And then third, we expect a seasonal decline in the defense programs like most of our high mix, lower volume businesses. These are accretive to gross margin. So, it's heavily mix dependent. I pointed out June will mark the low point as we actively sell through that remaining high-cost inventory. And again, that really reflects the inefficiencies caused by those underutilized fabs that were whipsawed by a massive inventory correction. We believe we're well past the worst of those utilization levels and as we sell through the material, it will pave the way for higher gross margins I commented on for the full fiscal year color I talked about earlier. For September, if we pivot to that, we expect gross margin to improve substantially as three headwinds reverse; the seasonal ramp will reflect more external content, the defense revenue is expected to grow sequentially, and the underutilization impact should fall to less than or around 100 basis points versus the, call it, 300 basis points that we experienced last quarter.

KA
Karl AckermanAnalyst

I have a quick question. You mentioned a recovery in defense, and I was wondering about your thoughts on silicon carbide. I didn’t hear anything about that in your prepared remarks. I know the industrial market is facing a downturn, but do you have any insights on the recovery of the silicon carbide business or if the macro environment has impacted your success in silicon carbide, whether in industrial or defense? Thank you.

DF
Dave FullwoodSenior Vice President of Sales & Marketing

Hey, Karl. This is Dave. I can take that one. So, Bob, you had commented on some of this, but we've had some good success there in data centers and that part of the market actually looks quite good. We've talked in the past, too, about some of our success we've had in areas like solar that's being heavily impacted by the interest rate environment. And so, that market is extremely soft right now. So, it's kind of a mixed bag when you look at our silicon carbide business. Still quite a small business. So, we're growing into new markets, and so there's lots of opportunities there. The sales funnel is growing and strong, but the end markets are really dependent on some of the interest rate environment that we're experiencing.

Operator

Your next question comes from Edward Snyder with Charter Equity Research.

O
ES
Edward SnyderAnalyst

Yeah. Sorry about that, guys. A couple of questions, if I could. Last quarter, we had some discussions about content growth and strength in the second half. I know you haven't guided that to this quarter at all. I just want to get an update, if possible, now that you've had a chance, most of those wins have been awarded and you're probably working on qualifying it? Any alteration at all in terms of how strong you think it'll be in the second half in terms of content or revenue growth without guiding? I'm just trying to get a feel for if anything's changed.

BB
Bob BruggeworthPresident and CEO

Hi Ed, it's Bob. Thanks for the question. We are very confident in our outlook with our largest customer. As I mentioned last time, we expect to gain market share this year, and we remain optimistic about gaining share in FY '25 and FY '26, as well as growing revenue. We feel very good about both of those.

ES
Edward SnyderAnalyst

Good. You closed the Anokiwave deal, and their product line closely resembles everything needed for a millimeter wave to a mobile platform. Recently, there has been some news suggesting a potential win with that. Initially, my impression was that it would focus on infrastructure. Does it also have a mobile aspect? How confident are you that it will gain traction, considering the challenges that the normal wave sector has faced in the mobile business for some time?

BB
Bob BruggeworthPresident and CEO

Thanks, Ed. This is a good opportunity to clarify. When we acquired the company, our primary focus was on defense. The infrastructure market can be quite unpredictable, yet we still see potential there, though it's mainly within defense. Currently, we have no intentions of integrating it into our mobile phone segment.

Operator

Your next question comes from Srini Pajjuri with Raymond James. Pardon me, your next question comes from Chris Caso with Wolfe Research.

O
CC
Chris CasoAnalyst

Yes, hi. The first question, I just wanted to clarify a comment that you made. You talked about revenue and gross margin increasing in fiscal '25, but you mentioned it would be modest. I wanted to confirm if that modest comment applied to both revenue and gross margin or just to gross margin.

GB
Grant BrownCFO

Thanks for the question, Chris. It was for both.

Operator

Your next question comes from Srini Pajjuri with Raymond James.

O
SP
Srini PajjuriAnalyst

Thank you. Bob, in your guidance for fiscal year revenue to increase modestly, you mentioned earlier that you expect your largest customer to grow year-on-year this year. I'm curious about the rest of the business, particularly since we have seen weakness in broad market and non-smartphone segments for some time. These segments seem to be fluctuating, but some indicators suggest a recovery. What is the outlook for areas outside of your largest customer? What is causing you to adopt a more cautious stance? It appears that your tone is more cautious compared to last quarter. I am just trying to understand the reasons behind this hesitation.

GB
Grant BrownCFO

Sure. I'll address that first, and then Bob can provide additional insights. For fiscal '25, we maintain a positive outlook and anticipate growth. We plan to increase our gross margin as it currently stands. We are experiencing success with our largest customers, which is contributing to greater seasonality, noticeable in June. Overall, we expect the year to see an upward trajectory. This also allows us to expand our defense business, supported by recent congressional budget approvals and foreign aid packages driving our order activity. We expect a strong momentum in the defense business during the second half of the fiscal year, starting in the December quarter and continuing into March. Those are some key factors driving our outlook. Bob, I think we may have overlooked the last part of your question regarding our confidence with our largest customer.

SP
Srini PajjuriAnalyst

I was just wondering, I guess last quarter you definitely sounded a bit more confident about the next year or two at your largest customer. Looks like that hasn't changed. And given your view on your largest customer, I would have thought the fiscal year guidance would be up more than just modestly. So, I'm just trying to understand what's kind of giving you that pause outside of your largest customer.

BB
Bob BruggeworthPresident and CEO

We still believe we're going to grow in the Android ecosystem, to be clear. So, again, we didn't comment on the full year last time. The only comment I made was I wanted to correct some noise that was in the market about we had lost a socket potentially at our largest customer and I want to make that clear. So, I'm sure that came across clear. However, when we look out over the year, I mean, there's a lot of things to judge for the year. I think it's great that we're able to provide you some color, at least how we think of things today. But I'd say, if anything, we're being somewhat conservative, just given what's going on. As you know, our Android market in China, quite honestly, it's going to be flat quarter-over-quarter to slightly up, but we're very cautious on China and the economy turning around there, where they're actually doing well is in some of the export market. So, just given everything that we see going on globally, interest rates, you see what's going on with the Fed in our own country and going around the world, I think it's prudent to take a conservative view when we give our outlook, whether it's the number of units at our largest customer or what's going to happen to end demand with consumers. We're just being cautious, but we're confident we can grow. And I think that's how I'd leave that.

GB
Grant BrownCFO

Sure. Thanks for the question. So, from a capital intensity perspective, I still think that we'll be spending CapEx in and around that 5% target level. As we look out over time, it could vary based on capacity required to support customer demand, but that's our current target.

Operator

Your next question comes from Thomas O'Malley with Barclays.

O
TO
Thomas O'MalleyAnalyst

Hey, guys, thanks for taking my questions. So, on the last call, you kind of talked about the shape of the year being very similar year-over-year if look at fiscal year '24 and fiscal year '25. With June coming in a bit lighter, could you just update us on how you're seeing the shape of the year? Does that peak a bit higher in the September, December period just because Q1 was a bit weaker? Any color on what you're kind of seeing in terms of the shape of the year being similar? Or does that change at all with what we're looking at in June?

GB
Grant BrownCFO

Sure. It's similar to fiscal '24. As I mentioned, we do expect, unlike fiscal '24, that we'll have a larger December than September and then down seasonally in March. So, in that regard, it's slightly different than what we saw in fiscal '24. But generally speaking, the September, December quarters will be our largest within the fiscal year.

BB
Bob BruggeworthPresident and CEO

Hi, this is Bob. June is likely to be flat to up within the Android ecosystem. As you mentioned, we are coming off a significant flagship ramp with our second largest customer, accompanied by strong content. We are balancing that with growth outside of that customer.

GB
Grant BrownCFO

I think you're in the right ballpark, Chris. I gave a rough estimate for the year. So, I believe you backed into it properly.

Operator

Your next question comes from Peter Peng with JPMorgan.

O
PP
Peter PengAnalyst

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Let me go back to that modest revenue growth. Are you expecting growth across all segments? Or are you expecting some decline in certain segments?

GB
Grant BrownCFO

For the full year, we are expecting growth across all segments. Yeah, no change in the outlook. We're still thinking low single digits for the overall market. And like you said, 5G growing greater than 10%.

Operator

Your next question comes from Tim Arcuri with UBS.

O
UA
Unidentified AnalystAnalyst

Hi. This is Aman jumping in for Tim. We're hearing from some of your peers some inventory built at your largest customer in March. Are you seeing a similar trend? And then, how should we think about growth in largest customer as we progress through this year? And do you have visibility in terms of content growth as we look into next calendar year?

BB
Bob BruggeworthPresident and CEO

This is Bob. And what I can tell you is that we don't see any channel inventory between us and our largest customer. And the reason is pretty straightforward. We ship directly to their manufacturers. So, this has come up maybe a year or so ago, and now come up now, and we don't see anything like that.

Operator

That concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

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Bob BruggeworthPresident and CEO

We want to thank everyone for joining us tonight. We appreciate your interest in Qorvo, and we look forward to speaking with you during our Investor Day on June 11 and at upcoming investor events. Thank you, and I hope you have a great evening.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

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