In what could be one of Motorola Mobility Holding’s last quarters as an independent company before it’s snatched up by Google (News - Alert) in early 2012, third-quarter revenue results show that the mobile device maker may have recaptured a bit of the spark it’s lacked over the last several years.
Revealed Thursday afternoon, results weren’t too far off from previous expectations from analysts, who forecasted an adjusted net income of 6 cents per share on $3.38 billion in revenue. Meanwhile, Motorola Mobility itself – which has experienced lackluster smartphone sales as compared to its competitors – predicted back in July that smartphone shipments would increase and third-quarter adjusted earnings would break even to 10 cents per share.
And that it did – and more.
Third-quarter net revenues of $3.3 billion were up 11 percent from the $2.91 billion the company experienced in 3Q 2010, when Motorola Mobility operated solely as Motorola, Inc. In addition, Motorola Mobility reported non-GAAP net earnings of $0.12 per share, as opposed to $0.13 per share in third quarter 2010, and GAAP net loss of $0.11 per share compared to the net loss of $0.12 from the same quarter of last year.
Furthermore, analysts predict revenue is expected to come in at $13.7 billion for the year, as reported by Forbes.
For what’s become quite a hot spot for the company, the company’s mobile devices segment achieved revenues of $2.4 billion, up 20 percent from the 3Q 2010, and experienced a non-GAAP operating decline of $15 million and a GAAP operating loss of $41 million.
Motorola Mobility comes off of an average second quarter in which the Libertyville, Ill.-based company shipped a total of 11 million phones, 4.4 million of which were smartphone devices. This time around, however, shipments trickled slightly up to 11.6 million mobile device shipments, 4.8 million of those comprising of smartphones.
Standing alone, these numbers certainly sparkle, however, the company has struggled at getting a tight grasp on the smartphone market, falling behind its contenders such as Apple (News - Alert), which sold a whopping 17.1 million iPhones in its most recent quarter.
As of late, Motorola Mobility has put much of its focus on bringing back to market a smartphone that could potentially match the popularity of its 2004 claim-to-fame, the RAZR cell phone. According to reports, Motorola will be bringing back the “RAZR” name in the form of a thin, lightweight Android-based smartphone that runs on Verizon (News - Alert) Wireless’ new high-speed wireless data network.
In addition, the company recently rolled out a 4G LTE upgrade to existing Motorola XOOM customers in a move to enhance the tablet experience and help end-users experience faster speeds and connections.
This attempt at slicing into the smartphone market once again and an impressive third-quarter seems to have left company officials with a rather positive outlook. "Our third quarter revenues in mobile devices increased by 20 percent, driven by continued strong growth in international markets,” said Sanjay Jha (News - Alert), chairman and chief executive officer, Motorola Mobility, in a prepared statement. “With the recent launch of our iconic Motorola RAZR, we now have several 4G LTE devices in our portfolio.”
What didn’t experience an extra stellar third quarter was the company’s home segment, which garnered revenues of $825 million, down 10 percent from third quarter 2010, even after its 4Home (News - Alert) software platform was chosen to power Verizon’s new Home Monitoring and Control service in North America.
However, Motorola Mobility certainly has a lot to look forward to with its expected merger with Google, valued at $12.5 billion, on the horizon.
“We are also excited about the proposed merger with Google and continue to make progress to close this transaction," Jha added.
Motorola Mobility Holdings shares rose to a new 52-week high today of $39.10, with 3.5 million shares exchanged as compared to an average 30-day volume of 4.1 million shares. With a current price of $39.05, Motorola Mobility Holdings comes in 3.3 percent above its average consensus analyst price target of $37.77.
Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet web editor. She covers a wide range of topics, including IP communications and information technology. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Juliana Kenny