Hội nghị công bố kết quả kinh doanh quý 2 niên độ tài chính 2027 của Cirrus Logic (CRUS): Doanh thu đạt 559,5 triệu USD

Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ: CRUS) đã công bố doanh thu quý 2 năm tài chính 2027 đạt 559,5 triệu USD, nhờ sản lượng điện thoại thông minh gia tăng và hàm lượng linh kiện trên mỗi thiết bị cao hơn. Ban lãnh đạo nhấn mạnh mức tăng trưởng hàm lượng linh kiện điện thoại thông minh tiếp theo, trong khi sự suy yếu của mảng PC và các nút thắt trong chuỗi cung ứng vẫn là những yếu tố cản trở trong ngắn hạn.

Điểm nhấn chính

• Doanh thu đạt 559,5 triệu USD, tăng 22% so với quý trước và đi ngang so với cùng kỳ năm trước. Sản lượng xuất xưởng điện thoại thông minh cùng hàm lượng linh kiện cao hơn đã thúc đẩy mức tăng trưởng theo quý này.
• EPS theo chuẩn GAAP đạt 2,23 USD, trong khi EPS non-GAAP đạt 2,70 USD. Biên lợi nhuận hoạt động non-GAAP đạt 28,5%.
• Biên lợi nhuận gộp non-GAAP tăng lên 53,8%, nhờ chi phí tấm bán dẫn (wafer) thấp hơn và chi phí mở rộng sản xuất giảm. Ban lãnh đạo nhận định quý này là mức đỉnh về biên lợi nhuận gộp.
• Cirrus Logic kỳ vọng tỷ lệ tích hợp linh kiện trên điện thoại thông minh sẽ gia tăng trên nhiều dòng sản phẩm hiện có trong các đợt ra mắt liên tiếp trong khoảng 18 tháng tới.
• Doanh thu quý 3 năm tài chính 2027 dự kiến dao động trong khoảng từ 510 triệu USD đến 570 triệu USD, với biên lợi nhuận gộp theo chuẩn GAAP đạt từ 51% đến 53%.
• Hội đồng quản trị đã phê duyệt bổ sung 500 triệu USD cho chương trình mua lại cổ phiếu. Cirrus Logic kết thúc quý 2 với 1,1 tỷ USD tiền mặt và các khoản đầu tư, đồng thời không có dư nợ.

Dữ liệu tài chính quan trọng

Tăng trưởng doanh thu so với quý trước phản ánh sản lượng điện thoại thông minh cao hơn, hàm lượng linh kiện xuất xưởng trên điện thoại thông minh gia tăng và ở mức độ thấp hơn là sự tăng trưởng của các linh kiện tùy chỉnh cho những ứng dụng ngoài điện thoại thông minh. Mức tăng này phần nào bị bù trừ bởi doanh thu mảng PC thấp hơn và doanh số sụt giảm của một số sản phẩm đại trà sắp kết thúc vòng đời.

Mức tăng trưởng từ mảng điện thoại thông minh so với cùng kỳ năm trước đã bị triệt tiêu bởi doanh số thị trường đại trà sụt giảm và các đợt giảm giá đã được dự liệu từ trước.

Hoạt động kinh doanh và vận hành

Âm thanh điện thoại thông minh và HPMS

Bộ khuếch đại tăng áp tùy chỉnh mới nhất và bộ giải mã thông minh (smart codec) 22 nanomet của Cirrus Logic đã được tích hợp vào các thiết bị đầu bảng mới ra mắt, với nhu cầu duy trì ở mức mạnh mẽ trong suốt quý. Ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng thế hệ sản phẩm hiện tại sẽ có vòng đời kéo dài nhiều năm, dựa trên lịch sử xuất xưởng từ 5 đến 6 năm của các thế hệ codec và bộ khuếch đại trước đó.

Bộ điều khiển camera thế hệ thứ ba đã đạt tỷ lệ tích hợp cao hơn trong một số dòng điện thoại thông minh mới ra mắt gần đây. Cirrus Logic cũng đã hoàn tất thiết kế mẫu (tape-out) cho bộ điều khiển thế hệ thứ tư, sản phẩm được ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng sẽ bước vào giai đoạn sản xuất trong năm dương lịch 2028 và nâng cao hàm lượng linh kiện trên mỗi thiết bị.

Công ty tiếp tục phát triển IC nguồn thông minh phục vụ cảm biến 3D cùng một sản phẩm pin và quản lý nguồn tùy chỉnh mới. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết danh mục cơ hội tiềm năng đối với các sản phẩm âm thanh cốt lõi và tín hiệu hỗn hợp hiệu năng cao (HPMS) đang ở mức mạnh mẽ hàng đầu trong lịch sử gần đây của công ty.

PC, thiết bị AI và thiết bị đeo

Thị trường PC vẫn suy yếu do tình trạng thiếu hụt bộ nhớ và linh kiện, giá thành tăng cao cùng việc các nhà sản xuất thiết bị gốc (OEM) trì hoãn ra mắt sản phẩm đã gây áp lực lên nhu cầu. Cirrus Logic cho biết các hợp đồng trúng thầu thiết kế liên quan vẫn được đảm bảo và có thể hỗ trợ tăng trưởng khi nhu cầu thị trường hồi phục.

Một mẫu PC cao cấp phát triển trên nền tảng RTX Spark của NVIDIA đã ra mắt với hệ thống 6 loa sử dụng bộ khuếch đại và codec của Cirrus Logic. Công ty cũng đã hoàn tất thiết kế mẫu (tape-out) cho bộ giải mã thông minh thế hệ thứ hai dành cho PC tích hợp AI và dự kiến sẽ cung cấp sản phẩm mẫu trong năm dương lịch tới.

Ban lãnh đạo nhận thấy tiềm năng to lớn cho công nghệ âm thanh, giọng nói và quản lý nguồn của công ty trong các tiện ích AI và kính thông minh. Cirrus Logic đang hợp tác với nhiều đối tác thị trường và kỳ vọng các thiết bị sử dụng sản phẩm của công ty sẽ tiếp cận thị trường trong vài quý tới.

Thị trường đại trà và hoạt động thâu tóm

Cirrus Logic đã bắt đầu cung cấp sản phẩm mẫu linh kiện đầu vào tương tự (analog front-end) cho công tơ thông minh và nhận được các đơn đặt hàng sản xuất đầu tiên cho linh kiện tạo ảnh công nghiệp mới. Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến việc sản xuất quy mô lớn các sản phẩm tạo ảnh này sẽ bắt đầu vào quý kết thúc vào tháng 12.

Sau khi kết thúc quý, Cirrus Logic đã hoàn tất thương vụ mua lại INVENTVM, một công ty bán dẫn không nhà máy (fabless) có trụ sở tại Ý chuyên về IC âm thanh và IC quản lý nguồn tín hiệu hỗn hợp. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết giao dịch này giúp mở rộng năng lực kỹ thuật và hỗ trợ các cơ hội trong mảng thiết bị đeo tiêu dùng cùng các tiện ích AI.

Công ty cũng xác nhận đã đưa ra các đề xuất mua lại Synaptics nhưng không còn tiếp tục theo đuổi thương vụ này sau khi mức giá vượt quá ngưỡng định giá nội bộ. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết sẽ tiếp tục đánh giá các cơ hội thâu tóm nhưng vẫn duy trì kỷ luật phân bổ vốn.

Triển vọng từ ban lãnh đạo

Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến chi phí hoạt động cho toàn bộ năm tài chính 2027 sẽ tăng lên khi Cirrus Logic đẩy mạnh đầu tư vào nghiên cứu và phát triển. Công ty tin rằng biên lợi nhuận gộp có thể duy trì trong phạm vi từ 51% đến 53% trong tương lai gần, dù vẫn cảnh báo không nên kỳ vọng quá xa trong bối cảnh các hạn chế về chuỗi cung ứng vẫn tiếp diễn.

Rủi ro và các yếu tố cần theo dõi

• Nhu cầu PC tiếp tục chịu áp lực từ tình trạng thiếu hụt linh kiện, giá đầu vào tăng cao và việc trì hoãn ra mắt sản phẩm mới.
• Công suất khâu sau (back-end) ngành bán dẫn đang trong tình trạng khan hiếm và đòi hỏi phải chủ động quản lý chuỗi cung ứng.
• Lợi ích tạm thời từ các tấm bán dẫn mua theo những thỏa thuận trước đây với GlobalFoundries đã đóng góp vào biên lợi nhuận gộp quý 2 và dự kiến sẽ suy giảm dần.
• Chi phí vận chuyển và chuỗi cung ứng tăng cao vẫn là yếu tố cản trở biên lợi nhuận, dù Cirrus Logic có kế hoạch tăng giá có mục tiêu trên danh mục sản phẩm của mình.
• Thời điểm ghi nhận doanh thu quý 3 năm tài chính bị tác động do một phần nhu cầu của quý kết thúc vào tháng 12 đã dịch chuyển sang tháng 9, bao gồm cả các đợt giao hàng sớm hơn đối với linh kiện camera.
• Chi tiêu R&D gia tăng sẽ đẩy chi phí hoạt động năm tài chính 2027 lên cao khi công ty mở rộng danh mục phát triển sản phẩm.

Điểm nhấn phiên hỏi đáp với chuyên gia phân tích

Ban lãnh đạo cho biết hàm lượng linh kiện camera sẽ tiếp tục tăng trước khi bộ điều khiển thế hệ thứ tư bước vào giai đoạn sản xuất trong năm dương lịch 2028. Tỷ lệ tích hợp dự kiến sẽ gia tăng trên nhiều sản phẩm hiện có trong các đợt ra mắt suốt 18 tháng tới, sau đó sẽ là các cơ hội bổ sung từ những linh kiện HPMS mới.

Về tính mùa vụ của quý 3 năm tài chính, ban lãnh đạo cho biết mức sụt giảm dự kiến so với quý trước phản ánh thời điểm giao hàng thay vì sự thay đổi trong nhu cầu thị trường. Hàm lượng linh kiện cao hơn trên các dòng điện thoại thông minh cao cấp đã nâng đỡ kết quả quý kết thúc vào tháng 6 và tháng 9, trong khi một phần doanh thu ban đầu dự kiến thuộc về tháng 12 đã được ghi nhận sớm vào tháng 9.

Về biên lợi nhuận gộp, ban lãnh đạo chỉ ra rằng các thỏa thuận cung ứng tấm bán dẫn giúp cải thiện mức độ rõ ràng về giá cả và công suất. Cirrus Logic cũng dự định tăng giá có chọn lọc nhưng vẫn tiếp tục theo dõi sát sao tình trạng khan hiếm công suất khâu sau.

Về hoạt động mua bán và sáp nhập, ban lãnh đạo tái khẳng định rằng đầu tư tự thân vẫn là ưu tiên phân bổ vốn hàng đầu. Hoạt động thâu tóm vẫn là một phần trong chiến lược nếu giúp mở rộng nền tảng điện toán biên của công ty mà không gây rủi ro cho giá trị của kế hoạch tăng trưởng tự thân.

Toàn văn biên bản cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Toàn văn cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Phần trình bày của ban lãnh đạo

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Cirrus Logic Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2027 Financial Results Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded for replay purposes.

I would now like to turn the conference call over to Ms. Chelsea Heffernan, Vice President of Investor Relations. Ms. Heffernan, you may begin.

Chelsea Heffernan

Thank you, and good afternoon. Joining me on today's call is John Forsyth, Cirrus Logic's Chief Executive Officer; and Jeff Woolard, our Chief Financial Officer.

Today, at approximately 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time, we announced our financial results for the second quarter fiscal year 2027. A shareholder letter discussing our financial results, the earnings press release, and the webcast of this Q&A session are all available at the company's Investor Relations website. This call will feature questions from the analysts covering our company. Additionally, the results and guidance we will discuss on this call will include non-GAAP financial measures that exclude certain items. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our earnings release and are all available on the company's Investor Relations website.

Please note that during this session, we may make projections and other forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from projections. By providing this information, the company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any projections or forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new developments or otherwise.

Please refer to the press release and the shareholder letter issued today, which are available on the Cirrus Logic website, the latest Form 10-K, as well as other corporate filings registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission for additional discussion of risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

Now I'd like to turn the call over to John.

John Forsyth

Thank you, Chelsea, and welcome to everyone joining today's call. As you have seen in the press release, Cirrus Logic delivered solid results for the September quarter with revenue of $559.5 million, up 22% sequentially as well as GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per share of $2.23 and $2.70, respectively. Jeff will walk through the financials and our outlook for the December quarter in a few minutes.

Before that, I'll cover what we've accomplished since August, a period that included important tape-outs, the first production orders for new industrial products, and an acquisition. I'll discuss progress on each of our 3 strategic priorities in turn. They are: leading in smartphone audio, growing our high-performance mixed signal or HPMS content in smartphones and related devices and expanding into new markets and applications. Starting with smartphone audio. This fall, our latest generation custom-boosted amplifier and 22-nanometer smart codec were again featured in newly launched flagship devices and demand for both remained strong through the quarter.

Beyond audio performance and power efficiency, these components enable considerable flexibility in system design. History is a good guide to their anticipated longevity. The prior generations of our codec and amplifiers shipped in flagship devices for 5 and 6 years, respectively. And we expect this generation to follow a similar path, giving us durable revenue and good visibility in our flagship business. Looking ahead, we remain closely engaged with our customer on future audio innovations as we continue to invest in our leadership in this core area of our business.

Turning to our second priority. We are making good progress growing our HPMS content in smartphones. A great example of this is our camera controllers, where we have introduced 3 generations of products since 2020, with each being more capable than the last. Historically, each one has launched in premium models before being designed into a wider range of devices, and we saw exactly that pattern this quarter with a higher attach rate of our third-generation controller in certain models of recently introduced smartphones.

Continuing to execute on our camera road map, we have also now taped out our fourth generation controller, which we expect to enter production in calendar year 2028 and to further increase our content per device. Beyond cameras, we are also seeing good traction in battery and power, where we are continuing the design of our smart power IC for 3D sensing and are in development on a new custom power and battery product.

Taking a step back to look at our smartphone business as a whole, we see our content growing in layers with both broader adoption of the parts we already ship and then new components on top of that. In the near term, over roughly the next 18 months, we expect successive launch windows to bring higher attach rates across a number of our existing ICs. Beyond that, we also expect to build on these gains and further increase our content per device with multiple new components that are now in development, including our fourth-generation camera controller, the smart power IC for 3D sensing and other HPMS components. And we expect continued positive contributions from accessories, wearables and other non-smartphone devices. To reiterate a comment I made in the last call, the pipeline of opportunity across our core audio and HPMS business is among the strongest in the company's recent history.

Moving to our third priority, I'll start with PCs. Since we last spoke, the headwinds we described in this market have not eased. Shortages of memory and other components and the higher prices that follow are weighing on PC demand and market research now points to significant unit declines this year with further pressure on shipments in calendar 2027. In response, OEMs have pushed out some new model launches. And in many cases, those newer models are expected to carry more of our content per system and ship in higher volumes. While that's impacting our near-term outlook, the design wins behind those models are still in place. We're actively engaged with customers on new programs, and we believe we're positioned for growth as demand recovers.

Setting those market dynamics aside, we are seeing tangible evidence of progress in our PC business. In August, I mentioned that several customers plan to ship RTX Spark-based systems with our amplifiers and codecs on board. In October, one of those launched, a new premium PC built on NVIDIA's RTX Spark platform with a 6-speaker audio system powered by Cirrus Logic amplifiers and a codec. It's a great showcase for the, kind of, rich high-fidelity audio we can deliver in thin, power-efficient designs. Audio is one way we're adding value to new PC designs. Voice is another. And this is an area we are particularly excited about as PCs become increasingly AI-centric.

We see a significant opportunity to enable voice as the natural interface for AI-enabled PCs and agentic workflows. Our latest smart codec integrates a dedicated DSP and a low-power wake-up signal chain that handles wake word detection, noise reduction and audio buffering independently of the CPU or NPU. This enables an always-on conversational interaction while simultaneously preserving battery life. Customer interest in this component continued to be strong this quarter. And over time, we expect voice to move from premium platforms into mainstream designs.

Further expanding our product portfolio in this area, during the quarter, we also taped out our second-generation smart codec for AI-enabled PCs, which we expect to sample to customers in the coming calendar year. We also see a growing opportunity in AI gadgets and smart glasses as AI assistants become accessible via new types of wearable and portable devices. These are small battery-powered products that need great voice interfaces, great audio and very efficient power management. And these areas are precisely in our wheelhouse. We're engaged with several market leaders today, and we expect end devices using our products to reach the market in the next few quarters.

In our general market business, I'd like to highlight 2 milestones this quarter. First, as we anticipated in August, we began sampling our new analog front-end components for smart metering. Second, we received the first production orders for our new industrial imaging components. These products are built for high-precision scanning in applications such as line scan machine vision and optical inspection. Instead of piecing together several separate components, customers get one integrated scalable imaging front end, which means improved speed, better efficiency and lower system cost. Customer engagement has been high since we introduced this family earlier this year, and we expect mass production to begin in the December quarter.

Finally, I'm pleased to share that subsequent to the end of the quarter, we completed the acquisition of INVENTVM, a fabless semiconductor company based in Pavia, Italy, that specializes in mixed-signal power management and audio ICs. This is a team we know very well and with whom we've worked closely over the past 5 years. So we've seen their engineering talent and R&D capabilities firsthand. The combined team expands our engineering capacity and strengthens our position and portfolio in the emerging consumer wearable and AI gadget markets that I mentioned earlier. I'd like to extend a warm welcome to the INVENTVM team. And that concludes the latest update on our long-term growth strategy.

So let me now turn the call over to Jeff to provide an overview of our financial results as well as the outlook.

Jeffrey Woolard

Thank you, John. Good afternoon, everyone. I'll now walk through our Q2 financial results and provide guidance for Q3. In Q2 fiscal 2027, we delivered revenue of $559.5 million, which was above the midpoint of our guidance range. Revenue was up 22% sequentially and flat year-over-year. The sequential increase reflects higher smartphone unit volumes and increased content shipping into smartphones and to a lesser extent, growth in custom components in non-smartphone applications. This was partially offset by a decline in PCs and to a lesser extent, a reduction in revenue from certain general market components that are coming to their end of life.

On a year-over-year basis, an increase in smartphone unit volumes and higher content shipping into smartphones was offset by lower general market sales and previously anticipated pricing reductions.

Turning to gross profit and gross margin. Non-GAAP gross profit in the September quarter was $300.8 million and non-GAAP gross margin was 53.8%. On a sequential basis, the increase in gross margin reflects lower wafer costs, largely driven by the temporary benefit from wafers purchased under prior agreements with GlobalFoundries that we discussed last quarter as well as lower production ramp expenses. On a year-over-year basis, an increase in gross margin was largely due to a favorable product mix, lower inventory reserves and that same temporary wafer benefit. This was partially offset by higher freight costs and supply chain costs.

Now I'll turn to operating expenses. Our non-GAAP operating expense for the second quarter was $141.6 million. On a sequential basis, OpEx was up $6.2 million, primarily driven by higher product development expenses and variable compensation. Within employee-related expenses, higher salaries from increased headcount were offset by a seasonal reduction in benefit costs. On a year-over-year basis, operating expense was up $13.9 million, primarily due to higher employee-related expenses, product development expenses and R&D development expenses. This was partially offset by lower variable compensation.

These increases are consistent with our previously communicated plan to increase R&D investment in fiscal 2027 to support the range of opportunities across our business. Non-GAAP operating income for the quarter was $159.2 million or 28.5% of revenue.

Turning now to taxes. For the September quarter, our non-GAAP tax rate was 17.5%. And lastly, on the P&L, non-GAAP net income was $139.2 million, resulting in earnings per share of $2.70.

Let me now turn to the balance sheet. Our balance sheet continues to be strong, and we ended the September quarter with $1.1 billion in cash and investments. Our ending cash and investments balance was down $90.9 million from the prior quarter as share repurchases more than offset cash generated from operations. We continue to have no debt outstanding. Inventory at the end of the second quarter was $271.2 million, up from $262.7 million in the prior quarter. Days of inventory were down sequentially, and we ended the quarter with approximately 96 days of inventory.

Turning to cash flow. Cash flow from operations was $50.9 million in the September quarter and CapEx was $8.6 million, resulting in non-GAAP free cash flow margin of 8%. For the trailing 12-month period, cash flow from operations was $557.3 million and CapEx was $31.7 million. This resulted in a non-GAAP free cash flow margin of 26%. On share buybacks, in Q2, we utilized $125.5 million to repurchase 991,983 shares of common stock at an average price of $126.51. At the end of Q2 fiscal 2027, the company had $114.1 million remaining on its share repurchase authorization. The Board of Directors recently authorized the company to repurchase up to an additional $500 million of Cirrus Logic common stock. Subsequent to Q2 fiscal year '27, the company utilized $18.6 million to repurchase 170,757 shares at an average price of $108.67 under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Now on to guidance. For Q3 fiscal 2027, we expect revenue in the range of $510 million to $570 million. GAAP gross margin is expected to range from 51% to 53%. Non-GAAP operating expense is expected to range from $152 million to $158 million. Additionally, as we indicated previously, given the breadth of opportunities ahead of us, we expect our full fiscal year 2027 operating expenses to increase as we invest in R&D. In fiscal 2027, non-GAAP effective tax rate is expected to range from 16% to 18%.

Before we turn to Q&A, I'd like to address a number of investor questions that we received in advance of this call related to our October 13 filing on Synaptics. We made acquisition proposals for Synaptics and are not currently pursuing a transaction. We pursued it because the strategic logic was strong. Pairing our mixed-signal audio and power expertise with Synaptics' connectivity and sensing would have built a broader edge platform and diversified our customer and end market mix. We also went in with a clear view of value, and we held to it. We put forward what we believed was a compelling proposal for Synaptics shareholders that was also right for Cirrus Logic shareholders. When the price moved beyond that, we stepped back.

Two things should be clear. First, inorganic growth is a real part of our strategy, and we will keep evaluating opportunities that strengthen our platform and broaden our markets. Second, we will stay disciplined. Our balance sheet and cash generation give us flexibility, and we intend to use it in ways that create value for our shareholders. Finally, I would also like to note that while we understand there is an intense interest related to our largest customer, in accordance with Cirrus Logic company policy, we will not discuss specifics about our business relationship.

With that, let me turn the call over to Chelsea to start the Q&A session.

Chelsea Heffernan

Thanks, Jeff. We will now start the Q&A portion of the earnings call. [Operator Instructions] Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Tore Svanberg with Stifel.

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Cam Tierney

This is Cam Tierney on for Tore Svanberg at Stifel. Yes, I just wanted to ask on INVENTVM a little bit. So I'm curious if their battery management and charging IP feeds into the smartphone road map for your battery IC that you called out in your slide deck? Or is that more focused on non-smartphone markets? And maybe just, kind of, also more broadly, can you talk a little bit about the rationale behind INVENTVM?

John Forsyth

Yes, sure. Thanks for the question. The IP that is in the battery IC we've referred to there in the shareholder letter and the shareholder presentation is based on homegrown IP that we've been developing over the years. So many of the people listening to this call will have heard me say that, that's an area we've been investing in for some time now, and we believe we can offer really differentiated solutions around the battery. So the INVENTVM team is a great team. It's a very high-performing set of engineers, but we didn't go after them for IP in relation to that. They do have some IP and crucially a lot of expertise around mixed-signal areas that we care a lot about, power management, audio and the like. And it's also a team we know very well, having collaborated with them over the past 5 years.

So we do think that their expertise and some of what they've been working on plays very well to another area that I talked about in relation to the emerging category of AI gadgets, AI wearables and so on. And we certainly think they're going to bring a lot to the table for us in that area.

Cam Tierney

All right. And then for my follow-up, I just want to ask, I'm not sure if you guys can answer this, but is there any difference or maybe relative comment that you can make on content for you guys in the Duo versus the 18 Pro iPhones?

John Forsyth

We have seen some teardowns now, I think. So obviously, we got asked this question many times every quarter in advance of the rumored device, and we couldn't say anything. Thankfully, out in the wild, there are teardowns now. So yes, we have 2 audio amps in there, so you can go and see this on the web. We have 2 audio amps, haptics driver, a codec and the amps and the codec are obviously our latest generation products and then 2 camera controllers as well.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Tom O'Malley with Barclays.

Thomas O'Malley

I had a question on the camera controllers as well. You talked about continued proliferation of the third-generation camera controller, and you talked about the fourth coming in 2028. Is there a road map that you can see that content stepping up as well in the interim period of time? I know that you mentioned too, with the Duo, you've seen even more camera controllers on some phones in the past. Any comments about potential increasing content on that third-generation camera controller?

John Forsyth

Yes. Thanks, Tom. We definitely think there's going to be continued accretion in camera content before we get to the fourth-generation controller, and you got the timing right on the fourth-generation controller there. And that's actually part of a broader attach rate story. So I mentioned this in my prepared remarks, and we touched on it in the letter. But basically, we see -- we have a very positive setup over the next few years, consisting of both growth with content that we have already developed and are shipping today and then new content, which is incremental to what we ship today and then certain introductions like, as you said, newer generations of the camera controller.

So in the camera space, but -- not just in the camera space, actually, across multiple products, we can see opportunity for content attach rates to grow in the coming couple of years. In fact, what I said in the prepared remarks was we look over the next 18 months period, in each of the launch windows within that period, we will see content attach rate growth based on a range of content that we're shipping today. That's not to say attach rate growth ends after 18 months, but it's just to say that in each of those launch windows, we see that as one of the tailwinds to our results.

And then obviously, we have a number of new products in development as well. So the camera controller that you mentioned, we've also talked about the smart IC for sensing, the smart power IC. And then in the prepared remarks and in the shareholder letter, we also alluded to further HPMS content, which is, again, based in the battery and power space, which we've clearly been investing in for some time, and we're delighted to say that we now have another business award in that space, which will represent incremental content in a very high-volume socket as well.

Thomas O'Malley

Super helpful. And then my follow-up is just on gross margin. So we saw the close of -- well, at least the first report of 2 large RF providers. And it looks as though you are seeing some margin pressures into the next calendar year. Obviously, you have a very different relationship with your largest customer, but there are very severe component cost headwinds, and there is pressure, kind of, across the semi universe. So maybe just talk about your ability to keep gross margins at this level with that, kind of, backdrop. Obviously, in the past, like that relationship hasn't worked like that, but there's never been anything this extreme. I would just love to get your view there.

Jeffrey Woolard

Yes, Tom, thanks. Yes, as we mentioned, this was, kind of, a high point for us from a gross margin this quarter, where we're benefiting from some of the wafer prices we had previously. And you can see from our guide, that does drop down from our high point in that 51% to 53%. We see that as far as our foreseeable future, we believe we can be in that range. Now you mentioned it's very tight out there. It is very tight out there. We see that as well. We had also talked about we do have some wafer agreements that give us certainty for price and capacity. So we do have some insight into what things look like in the future.

I think the back end is very tight and something we manage on an almost daily basis to making sure we have capacity and those agreements are, I think, fluid in that part of the supply chain, but we'll continue to manage that. And we will be implementing some targeted price increases across our portfolio. So I think it's a little reckless to go too far out. But as far as we can see, we're comfortable with that 51% to 53% range.

Chelsea Heffernan

And there are no more questions at this time. So I'll turn the call back over to John for final remarks. Actually, sorry. Chris just jumped in the queue.

Operator

And with that, your next question comes from the line of Christopher Rolland with Susquehanna.

Christopher Rolland

Sorry for the late there. I guess a couple for me. First is the decline in September, I think it's fairly rare that you see a decline in the December quarter. Are there -- is there anything else to note there around inventory or build aheads or something affecting seasonality that we should be thinking about there?

Jeffrey Woolard

Yes. Thanks for the question. So if you -- I'm going to, kind of, take you back and look at the full year because I think you have to replay it a little bit to understand the story. But the full year is roughly in line with our expectations where we started the year. And as we talked about, that the shape of the quarter is going to be a little different. That first half is strongly skewed towards premium smartphones, which obviously our content is highest. And if you go back to Q1, if you remember, we were up 3% when we would traditionally have been down 9% in that quarter. And this was part of that flatter seasonality we discussed. It's just a much heavier content in a heavier Pro mix.

Q2 ended up being a little higher. Obviously, we came above the midpoint where that ramp came in a little bit more than we had expected. And so we had more revenue in June and September and some of that December revenue got pulled into September. Also a reminder, when we think about camera content, that shifts a little earlier than the other components. So there really hasn't been a change in demand. It's really a timing issue.

When we look at the March quarter, we see that returning to something that's closer to what we'd see from a normal seasonality, particularly when you bake in PCs have not been meeting our expectations for a lot of the supply chain environment we've talked about on PCs. I think next year, that looks -- not guiding specifically into next year, but I think next year, you'll see that a little bit more traditionally balanced with growth weighted to the second half, where they will also have some content gains and probably will be a tough compare to this year where that first half is just so heavily weighted to the premium phones.

Christopher Rolland

Excellent. Very helpful. My next question, and then I might have one more, believe it or not after that. But you mentioned that you would see content attach rates grow in launches in the next 18 months. I was wondering if there were any other details around type of product or application or anything you can speak about there and maybe even the magnitude of those -- that content growth?

John Forsyth

Yes, Chris, unfortunately, I don't want to say too much, obviously, about customer products. We want to be very respectful of their plans. But as I said, it does extend across multiple product areas for us. So that gives us a very good set of stepping stones of content accretion on our way to the introduction of wholly new incremental sockets that we've also talked about.

Christopher Rolland

Fantastic, John. And last one for me, I promise. Synaptics, this is primarily a digital company, a consumer-based company, overlap both in PC and mobile as well, kind of, similar to you guys. Is this the, kind of, thing that you are interested in going forward on the M&A front? And just, kind of, unpacking your opportunistic, kind of, view of buying them. Is this the, kind of, thing you might be looking for in the future?

John Forsyth

Well, I certainly would say, yes, we're very keen to engage in M&A where we feel that, that can authentically create value for shareholders and enable us to offer something that's really compelling to customers. I think we've been pretty clear that our capital allocation priorities put our organic opportunities first, but M&A is second where we can identify great M&A opportunities. In this case, you've alluded to it that Cirrus has class-leading mixed-signal assets, Synaptics has some solid assets in closely adjacent areas like touch sensing and so on. And there are various places, whether that's PCs or automotive and so on, where we obviously show up very close to each other.

So for example, they do touch and display controllers in cabin. We do haptics in cabin and so on, similar with trackpads and PCs. So we saw a good thesis there and opportunities to build more complete solutions to offer customers. I think there are more -- many more ways than that of creating value at the edge around our technologies. And that's something we obviously think a lot about. And, yes, we will obviously be disciplined with M&A as we have been in this case. We had, as Jeff said, a very clear view of the value. And we feel very strongly -- strong positive sentiment about our own organic plan and don't want to do anything that puts the value that organic plan is going to create at risk, but we'll continue to look for opportunities for us to grow the offering.

Chelsea Heffernan

Great. And that was our last question. So now I'll turn the call back to John.

John Forsyth

Thank you, Chelsea. So in summary, Cirrus Logic delivered strong results for the September quarter, and we continue to make good progress across each pillar of our long-term strategy. Between the numerous content opportunities that we see in our core business, the products we've just taped out and the progress we're making in new markets, we're very excited about what lies ahead. I'd like to thank all of our employees around the world for their dedication to innovation and to supporting our customers' success.

In what remains a challenging supply environment, I also want to recognize our foundry and OSAT partners whose close collaboration and responsiveness have been instrumental in enabling us to meet demand. And I'd like to express our appreciation to our customers for putting their trust in us and to all of you for your continued interest in our progress. Finally, I'd like to thank everyone for participating today. Goodbye.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.