NVIDIA Releases Q4 FY 2015 And Full Year Results: Record Revenue For Quarter And Full Year
by Brett Howse on February 11, 2015 5:35 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- NVIDIA
- Financial Results
NVIDIA released their earnings report for the fourth quarter of their fiscal year 2015, which ended January 25th, 2015. FY 2015 was a record for the company, with revenues coming in at $4.68 billion, up 13% from 2014. Q4 also had record revenue, following Q3 2014 which was also a record for NVIDIA. For the most recent quarter, NVIDIA had revenues of $1.25 billion, up 9% from 2014 and up 2% from Q3 2015. Gross margin for Q4 2015 was $699 million, or 55.9% which is up 1.8% over Q4 2014, and 0.7% over Q3 2015. Net income came in at $193 million, also up quarter-over-quarter 13%, and year-over-year 40%. Earnings per share were $0.35 (GAAP), up 13% over last quarter and 40% over last year, and beating analysts expectations.
NVIDIA paid back $46 million in cash dividends, and bought back 200,000 shares in Q4, bringing the 2015 fiscal year up to a total of $186 million in dividends and 44.4 million shares repurchased for $814 million, meaning NVIDIA was able to return $1.0 billion during the year. For FY 2016, NVIDIA intends to return an additional $600 million through these methods. The next dividend will be $0.085 per share, paid on March 19 to all shareholders on record as of February 16.
| NVIDIA Q4 2015 Financial Results (GAAP) | |||||
| Q4'2015 | Q3'2015 | Q4'2014 | Q/Q | Y/Y | |
| Revenue (in millions USD) | $1251 | $1225 | $1144 | +2% | +9% |
| Gross Margin | 55.9% | 55.2% | 54.1% | +0.7% | +1.8% |
| Operating Expenses (in millions USD) | $468 | $463 | $452 | +1% | +4% |
| Net Income | $193 | $173 | $147 | +12% | +31% |
| EPS | $0.35 | $0.31 | $0.25 | +13% | +40% |
NVIDIA has also released Non-GAAP figures which exclude the stock-based compensation, legal settlements, acquisition costs, investments, and a credit related to weak die/packaging material set.
| NVIDIA Q4 2015 Financial Results (Non-GAAP) | |||||
| Q4'2015 | Q3'2015 | Q4'2014 | Q/Q | Y/Y | |
| Revenue (in millions USD) | $1251 | $1225 | $1144 | +2% | +9% |
| Gross Margin | 56.2% | 55.5% | 53.8% | +0.7% | +2.4% |
| Operating Expenses (in millions USD) | $420 | $415 | $408 | +1% | +3% |
| Net Income | $241 | $220 | $187 | +10% | +34% |
| EPS | $0.43 | $0.39 | $0.32 | +10% | +34% |
The GPU business is still the main part of NVIDIA, and they had a nice boost. During Q4, NVIDIA launched the GTX 960 GPU, as well as the GTX 965M. This, combined with the GTX 980 , 970, 980M, and 970M launches recently have propelled the GPU revenue up to $1.073 billion for the quarter. This is an 8% increase over Q3 2015, and a year-over-year gain of 13%. Maxwell based cards have been very popular, and NVIDIA has seen strength in the PC gaming market for their high-end offerings. Notebooks with discrete GPUs have also been selling well, showing sales well above year-ago levels.
Tegra sales fell quite substantially this quarter, after several quarters of strong growth. For Q4 2015, Tegra revenue was $112 million, down from $168 million in Q3, and $131 million a year ago. This represents a decrease in revenue of 33% quarter-over-quarter, and 15% year-over-year. Smartphone and tablet design wins featuring NVIDIA Tegra drove the decline, however automotive Infotainment sales more than doubled. This helps explain why NVIDIA focused solely on the Tegra X1 at CES this year, as it has been a very strong market for their processors.
The remaining revenue is $66 million, which is a licensing fee paid by Intel to NVIDIA every quarter.
| NVIDIA Quarterly Revenue Comparison (GAAP) | |||||
| In millions | Q4'2015 | Q3'2015 | Q4'2014 | Q/Q | Y/Y |
| GPU | $1073 | $991 | $947 | +8% | +13% |
| Tegra Processor | $112 | $168 | $131 | -33% | -15% |
| Other | $66 | $66 | $66 | flat | flat |
It was a great FY 2015 for NVIDIA. Strong GPU sales offset the weaker smartphone and tablet SoC sales, but Tegra in the automotive space continues to perform very well.
For Q1 FY 2016 (yes, NVIDIA’s fiscal year is almost an entire year ahead of calendar year) the company is expecting revenues of $1.16 billion, plus or minus 2%, and GAAP margins of 56.2%, with Non-GAAP margins of 56.5%.
Source: NVIDIA
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Yojimbo - Thursday, February 12, 2015 - link
Yeah I wonder what they will do with Icera. It's just sitting there, it seems. No new updates to the modem. Well either they laid all those people off or they left or they have them doing something. As far as the actual modem itself, is it dead?darkfalz - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
Explains why the GTX 980 was nerfed yet overpriced - NVIDIA don't even need to break a sweat.dragonsqrrl - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
How was the GTX980 nerfed or overpriced at launch? It came in $100 cheaper than the 780Ti and outperformed it by ~12%.Klimax - Thursday, February 12, 2015 - link
And was full GM204.darkfalz - Thursday, February 12, 2015 - link
256mbit memory bus anyone? Lack of thermal/voltage headroom? Less than stellar performance at 4K/DSR/high levels of AA because of bandwidth limitations? TBH I love my Strix 980, and it overlocks decently (not as great as some others) +170 core and +400 memory, but I dunno. I feel you could have got a lot more out of this chip with half decent memory and they are taking their sweet time with the Ti version.TheJian - Friday, February 13, 2015 - link
4K=2+ cards (or two chips on one card). Either way, a single chip card is not made for 4K. Call me back when we hit 14nm gpu. Then we'll talk about what you're saying here. fps drops to below playable so why spend more on bandwidth that is wasted when you can't play there? IF going 256bit hurt perf it would not beat 780ti. What you feel and reality are clearly different ;) I think they're selling everything they make, and have no time to cherry up a TI yet. Again though, bloated memory for under 30fps anyway is dumb and complicating things for no reason which would NOT have allowed $100 cut from 780ti. If they gave you that extra lane, you'd be complaining about the extra $100 right? 980 was a pretty good deal over 780ti. Maybe not as an upgrade from it, but I mean if you passed on 780ti, 980 looked pretty awesome.silverblue - Thursday, February 12, 2015 - link
The 965M was launched on 5th January, whilst the 960 came out on 22nd January. I doubt either of those would've been a factor in NVIDIA's revenue.chizow - Thursday, February 12, 2015 - link
@CreigGuess you were wrong again with your comments a few months ago, huh? Guess price:performance aren't the most important factor when it comes to GPU sales and buying criteria, as once again, the overwhelming majority of the market has rejected AMD products and chosen to go with Nvidia instead.
In summary: maybe you are doing it wrong?
FlushedBubblyJock - Sunday, February 15, 2015 - link
AMD is so far behind now on features and extras it's an embarrassment to think about it.I hate Physx
I hate variable vsync
I hate 3D
I hate gsync
I hate automatic driver setting per game
I hate game day drivers
I hate recording my gaming real time live streaming
and on and on and on.....
I hate EVERYTHING except my 3fps over 121fps on xxxgame at xxresolution with AA off, and the driver crashing after a while is ok, I don't hate that. (AMD gamers manifest manifestoe'd)
haplo602 - Thursday, February 12, 2015 - link
I don't think Nvidia is able to report results for Q4FY2015 yet. Maybe Q4FY2014 but sure not FY2015.