<u>TI's Q4 2024: A Quarter of Resilience and Optimism</u>
Texas Instruments, one of the world's leading technology companies, has reported a modest decline in revenue for its fourth quarter of 2024. Revenue came in at $4 billion, a 3% sequential decrease and a 2% drop from the same quarter a year ago.
Despite this, there are rays of optimism in the company's end markets, particularly industrial and automotive, which saw modest sequential declines. The industrial market was down low single digits, while the automotive market was down mid-single digits. On the other hand, personal electronics grew mid-single digits, and communication equipment showed upper single-digit growth.
TI's CEO, Haviv Ilan, pointed out that the company sees good opportunities in all its markets, but places additional strategic emphasis on industrial and automotive. He highlighted that customers across all regions are increasingly turning to analog embedded technology to make their end products more reliable, affordable, and energy-efficient, driving growing content per application or secular growth.
The company's Chief Financial Officer, Rafael Lizardi, provided a detailed review of TI's financial results for the quarter. Gross profit came in at $2.3 billion, or 58% of revenue, but declined sequentially due to lower revenue and higher depreciation. Operating expenses were up 4% from a year ago, while operating profit was down 10% from the same quarter last year.
Despite these numbers, Lizardi also highlighted the company's strong capital management results, with cash flow from operations at $2 billion and capital expenditures of $1.2 billion in the quarter. TI paid out $1.2 billion in dividends and repurchased $537 million of its stock, increasing its dividend per share by 5% for the 21st consecutive year.
The company's balance sheet remains strong, with $7.6 billion of cash and short-term investments at the end of the quarter and total debt outstanding at $13.7 billion. TI has returned a total of $5.7 billion to its owners in the past 12 months.
