Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors N.V. only just beat expectations on revenue as it delivered its first-quarter financial results today.

The company reported a profit before certain costs such as stock compensation of $2.31 per share on revenue of $2.567 billion, up 27% from one year ago. Wall Street had been looking for a profit of $2.21 per share on revenue of $2.56 billion.

NXP Chief Executive Kurt Sievers (pictured) noted that a “positive product mix” and the increased revenue from a year ago helped the company deliver an operating profit that was “in excess of our guidance.”

“We continue to be encouraged by the long-term demand trends across all our end markets, which underpin our continued confidence of very robust growth throughout 2021,” Sievers added.

NXP manufactures a wide range of microchips that are used for automotive, identification, wired and wireless infrastructure, lighting, industrial, consumer, mobile and computing applications. Its chips are highly regarded for their emphasis on security especially. For example, its automotive chips feature gateways that prevent communication with every network within a car independently, in order to protect vehicles from being hacked.

The automotive sector is actually NXP’s biggest business, and it was responsible for generating $1.23 billion of the firm’s first-quarter revenue, up 24% from the year ago period. NXP’s Industrial & IoT division pulled in an additional $571 million, up 52%, while Mobile revenue came to $346 million, up 40%. Finally, NXP’s Communications Infrastructure & Other business category added $421 million in sales, up 4%.

Investors may have been a tad disappointed that NXP didn’t do better on the earnings front, given the global chip shortages that have affected industries across the world. The shortages have been most keenly felt in the automotive sector, where some vehicle manufacturers have even had to shutdown their factories due to a lack of processors.

NXP chose not to comment on the shortage, but it did make one significant concession to shareholders, saying its board has approved an interim dividend payment of 56 cents per ordinary share. That follows almost $1 billion that was returned to shareholders through previously announced share repurchases and dividend payments during the quarter just gone.

For the second quarter, NXP provided a revenue outlook of between $2.5 billion and $2.64 billion, the midpoint of which falls just above Wall Street’s average estimate of $2.56 billion.

NXP’s stock rose 1% in after-hours trading.

Photo: New Mobility World/YouTube