ARM’s results beat forecasts

The Cambridge-based company reported a 44 per cent jump in adjusted pretax profit of £89.4m ($136.3m), beating analysts’ forecasts of £77.6m. Revenue rose 28 per cent to £170.3m.

ARM, which licenses its designs to chip-makers like Samsung and Qualcomm, collects most of its revenue in the dollar, which has strengthened by about seven per cent against the pound since the start of 2013.

ARM has also been growing faster than the semi-conductor sector thanks to its dominance in smartphones and tablets, like Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and Apple’s iPad, and wider use of its low-energy processors in microcontrollers.

“The growth in smartphones and tablets continues to benefit ARM,” chief executive Warren East said.

“Even low cost smart devices can contain multiple ARM-based chips and be based on ARM’s advanced Cortex-A series technology and Mali graphics processors.”

The company said it expected group revenue for the year to be at least in line with market expectations. It also kept expectations unchanged for the second quarter.

Its shares, which trade at an industry-record forward multiple of 54 times earnings, reached a 12-year high of 985 pence last month.

ARM employs around 60 staff at its base in Sheffield.