Are Great Earnings Good Enough for Ambarella?

Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities on hand at the end of the fourth fiscal quarter of 2015 totaled $208 million, compared with $143.4 million at the end of the same quarter a year ago.

Gross margin for the fourth quarter was 64.3%, compared with 64.1% for the same period in fiscal 2014.

Fermi Wang, President and CEO of Ambarella, said:

Our strong fourth quarter and fiscal year results reflect the steady expansion of our product offerings and customer growth across our core markets, as well as early growth in new markets. During the fourth quarter we had strong year-over-year growth in our wearable, IP Security and automotive aftermarket revenues. Our revenue for the fiscal year was up 38.5% from last year, reflecting our commitment to developing leading edge technology that underpins the development of innovative video capture devices. We look forward to driving continued innovation in the year ahead.

Back in January, Canaccord Genuity issued a report on Ambarella and its outlook going forward.

Looking ahead, Canaccord Genuity believes that Ambarella will have sustainable leadership in both video compression and processing power efficiency due to its application-specific video encoding processors. In the long term, the company’s investments in video analytics software and encoding expertise will be incredibly relevant through important applications such as facial and action recognition, security, augmented-reality, self-driving autos and content-aware advertising.

Considering Ambarella’s unique processor and software technologies, the brokerage firm anticipates sustained leading market share in the range of 20% to 25% core growth markets. Note that in this earnings report, revenues grew 61.9% year-over-year.

It is worth noting that GoPro, Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) cameras contain Ambarella’s processors. GoPro produces a solid product which, in conjunction with market tailwinds, has skyrocketed shares since its initial public offering this past summer. This arguably makes Ambarella that much more valuable because GoPro will speak for the quality of its processors, in turn attracting more clients and more sales for Ambarella. Also, Ambarella is inside the devices of GoPro’s competitors as well.

Canaccord Genuity initiated coverage back in January with a Buy rating and a price target of $66.

Shares of Ambarella closed Tuesday up 2.3% at $63.05. Following the release of the earnings report, the shares initial reaction was relatively flat at $62.84 in after-hours trading. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $59.17 and a 52-week trading range of $21.60 to $63.20.