revenue growth
13–15 pct
FY 2026
official guidance
CEVA, INC.
Last · NASDAQ$29.23-1.63 (-5.28%)close · yahoo · 13h ago
Market cap$822.94M28.2M sh
P/E · TTM-73.1fwd 36.4 · eps -0.40 · loss
Beta1.93vs S&P 500
Div yield0.00%annual · TTM
52w range
$17.02$51.60
Volume779.3Ksession
| Revenue | $109.6M |
|---|---|
| Operating income | $-11.3M |
| Net income | $-10.6M |
| Free cash flow | $-6.3M |
| Operating margin | -10.4% |
| Net margin | -9.7% |
| Return on equity | -3.2% |
| Period | 2025 |
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OpenFilings analyst
Our analyst
Agentic read of the latest earnings call — recommendation updates when we process a new transcript. Research synthesis, not investment advice.
Strong BuyBuyHoldSellStrong Sell
Constructive quarter, but the stock is a buy only if valuation leaves room for execution risk.
Q2 revenue rose 13% to $29.0 million, licensing grew 21% to $18.2 million, and non-GAAP operating income reached $3.1 million; CEVA raised FY2026 revenue-growth guidance to 13%-15%. The bull case is broader platform adoption and AI-driven royalty expansion, while the key tension is that much of the royalty upside remains tied to handset seasonality, memory availability, and customer programs that may not reach production for 1.5-2 years.
Themes
- Platform Ip
- Edge Ai
- NeuPro Npu
- Automotive Ai
- Smartphone Royalties
- Bluetooth Hdt
Near term
Q3 revenue guidance of $30.5 million-$34.5 million implies continued seasonal expansion, but management acknowledged memory shortages are affecting wireless handsets and could not quantify the second-half impact.
Smartphone royalty momentum depends on UNISOC share gains, higher 5G mix, and increased use of internal modems by a large U.S. customer; these are positive but customer-specific drivers.
Bluetooth HDT royalties are expected to begin by year-end, but meaningful revenue contribution is not expected until 2027-2028.
Near-term profitability should benefit from revenue growth with non-GAAP operating expenses guided near Q2 levels of $22.5 million-$23.5 million.
Longer term
The shift from standalone IP blocks to complete hardware/software platforms could increase deal size, customer stickiness, content per design, and royalty per unit.
AI contributed approximately 20% of licensing and related revenue, and the custom NeuPro-M engagement with a large AI and computing platform company could improve CEVA's roadmap and credibility if it converts to production.
Automotive AI, cellular IoT, Wi-Fi, sensing, and spatial-audio platforms diversify the royalty base beyond handsets, although industrial IoT volumes fell year over year despite higher royalty revenue.
GlobalFoundries' acquisition of ARC may improve CEVA's competitive positioning in NPU/NeuPro, but this is management's interpretation rather than independently demonstrated share gain.
Red flags
Management did not quantify the expected contribution from licensing versus royalties behind the raised FY2026 outlook, making it difficult to assess the durability of the increase.
The flagship AI platform engagement is strategically important but appears several quarters from tape-out and roughly 1.5-2 years from production; near-term financial materiality is therefore limited.
The handset outlook still relies on normal seasonality and market-share gains despite an acknowledged memory shortage, with management unable to quantify the downside risk.
Claims of higher royalty per unit from custom and complete solutions are directionally attractive but were not supported by contract economics or customer-level figures.
Bluetooth shipments declined 16% year over year to 295 million units, and Wi-Fi's sequential decline was attributed to customer mix and timing rather than quantified underlying demand.
Forward outlook
revenue
30.5–34.5 $million
Q3 2026
official guidance
gross margin
87 pct
Q3 2026
official guidance
gross margin
88 pct
Q3 2026
official guidance
OpenFilings analyst view from primary-source filings and earnings calls — not investment advice.
From latest 10-K · 2026-02-27
- Operating Cf Burn
- Net Margin Sharply Negative
- Cash Conversion Weak
- Sbc Revenue Elevated
- Rd Intensity High
Red flags
- Operating Cf Burn — Negative operating cash flow
- Net Margin Sharply Negative — Net margin -9.7%
- Cash Conversion Weak — Cash conversion (CFO/Rev) -3.1%
- Sbc Revenue Elevated — SBC/Revenue 18.1%
- Rd Intensity High — R&D/Revenue 68.3%
Upcoming earnings
1:30 PM UTC+1
Period
Sep 2026
Est. EPS
$0.19
Est. revenue
32.7M