Benzinga | May 10, 2021 09:40AM EDT

CEVA Shares Fall After Q1 Earnings Miss, Licensing Revenue Decline

* CEVA Inc (NASDAQ: CEVA) reported first-quarter FY21 revenue growth of 8% year-on-year to $25.4 million, beating the analyst consensus of $24.01 million. A 56% growth in royalties from base station & IoT product category drove the growth, CFO Yaniv Arieli said.

* Licensing and related revenue declined 1% Y/Y to $14.4 million, while Royalty revenue rose 21% Y/Y to $11 million.

* Eleven license agreements were completed in Q1, with two agreements out of the eleven were with first-time customers.

* Ten of the agreements were inked in China, and one was elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region.

* The Q1 results reflect a strong start for the year, with outstanding execution in licensing and royalty revenues exceeding expectations, CEO Gideon Wertheizer said. The wireless connectivity technologies noted exceptional demand, from Bluetooth 5 and Wi-Fi 6, and new IoT use cases based on the 5G RedCap standard and UWB, Wertheizer added.

* Non-GAAP net income declined 88.5% Y/Y to $0.3 million with adjusted EPS of $0.01, missing the analyst consensus of $0.06.

* CEVA held $174 million in cash and equivalents.

* Price action: CEVA shares fell 7.96% at $48.01 on the last check Monday.