Jon Olson
Analyst · our Xilinx Investor Relations website. Let me now turn the call over to Jon Olson
Thank you, Rick. Fiscal 2014 was a year marked by the phenomenal success of our 28-nanometer products which exceeded $380 million in sales, easily surpassing our revised target of $350 million. For the company as a whole, fiscal year sales were a record $2.4 billion increasing 10% from the prior fiscal year and enabling Xilinx to gain PLD segment share for the third consecutive fiscal year. We also achieved a record gross margin of 68.8% in fiscal 2014, up from 66% in the prior year. Operating margin also improved markedly to 31.4%, up from 26.8% in the prior fiscal year. Finally Xilinx continued to demonstrate a strong commitment to returning shareholder value through dividend increase and repurchase activity. We recently increased the quarterly dividend by $0.04 a share to $0.29 a share per quarter. In the fiscal year 2014, we paid a record $267 million in dividend and repurchased 5.2 million shares for $242 million. Additionally more favorable financial market conditions and a continued strong credit rating enabled Xilinx to issue $1 billion of senior notes using the proceeds to redeem our 2007 convertible notes. Turning now, I would like to now turn to discussion of the March quarter. Xilinx sales were $618 million, up 5% and at the high end of our forecasted range. 28-nanometer sales increased over 40% sequentially driven by particularly strong wireless activity in China. Kintex remains the largest product at the 28-nanometer node but sales growth from Virtex and Artix were also particularly strong. Zynq sales also increased after more than doubling last quarter. Sales from communications and data center were stronger than anticipated in the March quarter, both wired and wireless sales increased during the quarter with wireless sales posting a new record and wired sales at its highest level in six quarters. China LTE deployments were the most significant factor contributing to the record wireless revenue, but we also saw growth in other geographies during the quarter. Within wired communications, metro, access and data center applications were particularly strong. Virtex-7 design began to ramp during the quarter in area such as OTN access and SSDs. Infrastructure upgrades 100 gig and 400 gig and increased bandwidth requirements are driving many of these applications. Test and measurement business increased as forecasted. However, industrial and A&D sales were weaker than anticipated due primarily to weakness from a couple of large customers in the industrial and security area, as well as a broad-based weakness across our smaller account. Lastly, broadcast, consumer and automotive were down as forecasted related primarily to an expected decline in consumer business. Gross margin was 67.6% for the quarter, 40 basis points lower than forecasted entirely driven by customer mix. Operating expenses were $228 million including amortization of $2.5 million, slightly higher than anticipated due to stock-based compensation associated with the higher stock price during the quarter. In the March quarter we recorded a loss of approximately $10 million or $0.03 per diluted share associated with the redemption of our convertible debt. This one-time loss was related to the accounting treatment of the early call of the 2007 convertible notes. As a result of this loss, other income and expense was approximately $7 million higher than planned. Net income for the quarter was $156 million or $0.53 per diluted share including a $0.03 per diluted share impact associated with the previously mentioned debt redemption loss. Operating cash flow for the March quarter was $189 million before $14 million in CapEx during the quarter. Diluted shares for the quarter were 295 million shares. This was 6 million shares more than forecasted due entirely to the impact of the higher stock price. There was a 21.7 million share dilutive effect from our convertible notes. The impact of the 2007 debt redemption will not be fully reflected in the diluted share count until Q1 of FY15. For questions related to the dilution associated with our convertibles, please visit our Investor Relations website at www.investor.xilinx.com. We repurchased 1.4 million shares for $75 million during the quarter and 5.2 million shares for $242 million during the fiscal year. Let me now comment on the balance sheet. Cash and investments decreased $96 million to approximately $3.6 billion. We have $600 million in convertible debt and $1 billion in fixed rate debt resulting in a net cash position of approximately $2 billion. Inventory dollars at Xilinx increased by $27 million sequentially. Combined inventory days at Xilinx and distribution were 115 days, up from a 114 days in the prior quarter. The growth in inventory is related to increasing safety stock on new products in anticipation of higher future demand. We expect inventory to increase again in Q1, FY15 as we anticipate strong demand for our new products in future quarters. Let me now turn to the discussion of guidance for the June quarter of fiscal year ‘15. Our backlog heading into the quarter is up double-digit sequentially, driven primarily by a few large wireless customers in the channel business. Coming off an exceptionally strong March quarter, we expect wireless to remain at these approximate record levels in the quarter, driven by continued China LTE activity. We also expect wired communications to be approximately flat as declines from a couple of large customers are offset by strength from enterprise, OTM and data center application. We expect the industrial and aerospace and defense segment to be approximately flat with increases from ISM offset by a decrease in aerospace and defense. Lastly, we expect broadcast, consumer and automotive to be up, driven by increases from AVB and automotive. We expect the new products category to continue to grow. Mainstream products are expected to be approximately flat and base products are expected to decline. As a result, we’re expecting total sales to be up 0% to 4% sequentially. The midpoint of this guidance is predicated on turns rate of approximately 50%. The lower than typical turns rate is driven by a strong beginning backlog from wireless and channel customers. Gross margin is expected to be approximately 68%. Operating expenses in the June quarter are expected to be approximately $220 million, including $2.5 million of amortization of acquisition-related intangibles. Other income and expense for the June quarter is expected to be a net expense of approximately $8 million. The share count is expected to be approximately 286 million shares. The lower share count reflects a reduction of 8.8 million shares associated with the redemption of the convertible. The tax rate for the June quarter is expected to be between 13% and 14%. Let me now turn the call over to Moshe.