Qorvo, Inc. (QRVO): what the price assumes

In the published model solve dated 2026-Q2, anchored at $95.33, Qorvo, Inc. (QRVO) is priced for today's economics sustained for ~6.3 years. boothcheck publishes no house fair value, target price, or buy/sell rating; individual model outputs and user-controlled scenarios are analytical inputs, not Boothcheck targets. Narrative composed 2026-06-28.

Generated: 2026-08-10 · Exported: 2026-08-12 · Source: https://boothcheck.com/report/QRVO

Headline

What The Price Assumes (Inversion)

The assumption today's price embeds, recovered by inverting the valuation.

The operating-margin figure is value-band context at year 12: derived from the framework's value band, a separate calculation — not part of the priced-in solve.

Solve inputs: computed at a 11% cost of capital; growth searched up to the 25% self-funding ceiling; each 1pp moves the implied horizon ~1.7 years.

Reconcile: at the x-ray's 9.3% required return this reads ~18.2%/yr; the models below use their own rates.

How unusual the bet is: elevated

Valuation X-Ray

Asset, earnings-power and peer-multiple models all land far below the price; ONLY the growth-DCF reaches it. The bet is durable compounding the static frames structurally cannot price (a moat/durability premium).

How the valuation models price the stock relative to the market price. Price/FV above 1.0 means the market pays more than that lens defends (expensive); at or below 1.0 the lens can defend the price.

Families that justify the price: Growth Families that call it expensive: Asset, Earnings

The models below discount at their own flat-beta convention rates (cost of equity 9.3%, WACC 7.9%); the inversion above states its own rate.

Per-Model Detail (n=14)

Economic-Unit Decomposition (Sum Of The Parts)

One or more material disclosed units has unresolved economics. Unknown/general is not evidence of homogeneity: segment SOTP is primary but incomplete, consolidated cash flow may remain only a secondary cross-check when every unit shares an enterprise basis, and one sector multiple or target margin is withheld.

No total common-equity value is stated. One or more material units lack a supported unit value. The displayed values are an indicative subtotal; consolidated debt and cash cannot be applied to a fraction of the company.

Solvency

Bullet Takeaways

At $98.40 the price is a bet on margin, not volume. Inverted, it pays about 21 times company-wide operating income and embeds operating margin expanding from roughly 11% today toward 16% and holding there for about six to seven years. The starting rate is reachable; the demand is on how long the improvement persists.

The valuation methods disagree sharply, and the disagreement is the signal. Only the growth-DCF family reaches the price (perpetual DCF near $106, exit-multiple near $123). The asset, earnings-power, and most peer-multiple methods sit far below: earnings power near $52, simple excess return near $39, Graham number near $54. The price is paying a durability premium the static frames cannot capture.

The setup has a live catalyst. Starboard Value is the largest holder and placed Peter Feld on the board, while fiscal 2026 gross margin expanded 370 basis points on a mix shift toward flagship smartphone and defense content. The bet is that activist-driven margin discipline makes the implied expansion stick, against the offset that Apple is roughly half of revenue.

Bull Case

What the standard valuation methods miss about Qorvo is that the price is not paying for the business as it looks today; it is paying for a margin structure that is actively being rebuilt. On a snapshot of current earnings the stock looks expensive: trailing return on equity near 10%, operating margin near 11%, and most of the asset and earnings-power methods land between $39 and $54. But that snapshot is exactly the thing in motion. Full-year fiscal 2026 non-GAAP gross margin expanded 370 basis points versus the prior year, driven by a deliberate mix shift away from low-content mass-market Android toward flagship and premium smartphone content, plus growth in higher-margin defense and infrastructure. The methods that anchor to a static margin cannot price a company mid-transformation, which is why only the growth-DCF reaches the price.

The transformation has a name and a board seat behind it. Starboard Value disclosed Qorvo as its single largest investment, around 13% of a roughly $4.57 billion portfolio, and Qorvo expanded its board to add Starboard's Peter Feld. Activist involvement of that scale and conviction tends to drive exactly the levers the inversion is pricing: cost discipline, portfolio rationalization, and margin expansion. The company has already been doing the work, completing divestitures of its silicon-carbide power and MEMS sensing businesses and consolidating filter production, all moves that lift the margin mix.

The segment data shows where the durable value sits. The High Performance Analog segment grew about 11% in fiscal 2026 on defense demand, DOCSIS 4.0, and base-station activity, the kind of diversified, higher-margin revenue that reduces dependence on the handset cycle. The balance sheet supports the patience the thesis requires: net debt near $330 million against trailing operating income that covers interest more than five times, and the company has shrunk its share count more than 4% a year. For the bull, the case is that the durability premium the static methods cannot see is real, anchored by an activist with a board seat and margin gains already on the scoreboard.

Bear Case

The honest read on the model disagreement is that the conservative methods are pricing the business that exists and the optimistic one is pricing the business the market hopes for. Strip out the single growth-DCF that reaches the price and the picture is uniform: earnings power value near $52, simple excess return near $39, two-stage excess return near $41, residual income near $41, Graham number near $54, and earnings yield near $39. The blended central estimate is about $60, and the model's reasonable-value band runs from roughly $56 at the low to $62 at the base, both well below the $98 price (June 28, 2026). When asset, earnings-power, and most peer-multiple frames all cluster around $40 to $60 and only one forward method touches the quote, the burden of proof sits entirely on a margin recovery that has not yet been sustained.

The customer concentration is the structural exposure that no margin program can offset. Apple is roughly half of revenue and Samsung about 10%, and the 10-K is explicit that the two largest customers accounted for approximately 57%, 58%, and 49% of revenue in the last three fiscal years (FY2025 10-K, accession 0001604778-25-000041). The same filing shows how fast that bites: a $152.8 million ACG revenue decline driven by a mix shift among smartphone customers to lower RF content (same filing), with ACG operating margin as a percent of revenue falling from 26.4% to 23.1%. A company whose biggest customer can move RF content per phone, or move it to a competitor, does not control its own top line, and the price is asking for six-plus years of margin durability from a revenue base that one customer can reset in a single product cycle.

The growth backdrop makes the duration bet harder. Full-year fiscal 2026 revenue actually declined about 1%, with ACG and the connectivity segment down even as HPA grew. The price implies margin holding at an elevated level for about 6.5 years, and only about a quarter of comparable companies have sustained such a run. The activist catalyst is real, but activism accelerates margin self-help; it does not create end-market demand or reduce the structural reliance on a single handset customer. If the next handset cycle disappoints or Apple's RF sourcing shifts, the durability premium the price depends on evaporates, and the methods clustered near $60 become the relevant anchor.

Valuation

The inversion is in duration mode, which is the right frame for a margin-recovery story. At $98.40 the price pays about 21 times company-wide operating income and solves not to a growth rate but to an operating margin lifting from roughly 11% today toward 16% and holding there for about 6.5 to 7 years, computed at an 11.2% cost of capital. Each one-point change in the cost of capital moves the implied horizon about 1.7 years. The near-term margin level is within recent reach; the priced-in assumption is elevated because of how long the improvement must persist, and only about a quarter of comparable companies have sustained such a run.

The method families make the bet explicit. Only the growth-DCF reaches the price: perpetual-growth DCF near $106, exit-multiple DCF near $123. The relative family is mixed (EV/EBITDA near $73, sector P/E near $76, but price-to-sales near $197). The asset and earnings-power families sit far below: earnings power value near $52, simple excess return near $39, residual income near $41, Graham number near $54. The blended central estimate is about $60, and the reasonable-growth band runs from about $56 low to $62 base, with the high case near $90.

The reconciliation is what the characterization names directly: asset, earnings-power, and peer-multiple models all say richly valued, and only the growth-DCF reaches the price, so the price is a bet on durable compounding the static frames structurally cannot price, a margin and durability premium. One measurement note: the trailing operating-income figure used in the inversion and the EDGAR quarterly measure diverge here, so treat the 21x multiple as approximate and weight the qualitative family split. The balance sheet is not the constraint, with net debt near $330 million and interest coverage near 5.6 times; whether the margin transformation is durable is the entire question.

Catalysts

The dominant catalyst is the activist situation. Starboard Value disclosed Qorvo as its largest holding (around 13% of a roughly $4.57 billion portfolio in its May 2026 filing), and the company expanded its board from nine to ten directors to add Starboard's Peter Feld. The pace and substance of margin and portfolio actions the board pursues from here is the single biggest swing factor for whether the implied margin expansion sticks.

The operating catalysts are the margin trajectory and the segment mix. Full-year fiscal 2026 non-GAAP gross margin expanded 370 basis points on a shift toward flagship smartphone and defense content, and the High Performance Analog segment grew about 11% on defense, DOCSIS 4.0, and base-station demand. Each quarter's read on gross margin and on HPA growth relative to the declining handset segments is the key marker. Recent strategic moves (divesting silicon-carbide power and MEMS sensing, consolidating filter production) feed the same margin story.

The overriding risk to monitor is customer concentration: Apple is roughly half of revenue and Samsung about 10%, so any change in RF content per device or sourcing at either customer would matter more than any single internal initiative. Full-year revenue declined about 1% in fiscal 2026, so the next handset cycle's demand is the demand-side catalyst to watch.

Sources: Qorvo fiscal 2026 results (Qorvo newsroom, stocktitan.net, TradingView), Starboard Value disclosures (gurufocus.com, MarketScreener), Morgan Stanley upgrade.

Peer Cohorts (Per Segment, With Filing Citations)

HPA (reported)

• MPWR (MONOLITHIC POWER SYSTEMS INC)
• FY2025 10-K: 25 through 2027) average revenue growth rate in excess of the analog industry's three-year average revenue growth rate as published by the Semiconductor Industry Association (the "SIA"). For the second goal, the executive officers can earn up to 200 % of the target number of the 2025 Executive PSUs based on the…
• FY2025 10-K: In February 2024, the Compensation Committee granted 11,000 PSUs to certain non-executive employees, which represented the target number of shares that could be earned based on the degree of achievement of the Company's 2025 revenue goals for certain regions or product line divisions, or based on the degree of…
• ADI (ANALOG DEVICES INC)
• FY2025 10-K: …system in package (SiPs), printed circuit board assemblies, modules and subsystems. Customer products include applications such as: • Navigation systems • Radar systems • Space and satellite communications • Security devices • Communication systems • Electronic surveillance and countermeasures Healthcare - The…
• FY2025 10-K: …Stock Repurchase Program As of November 1, 2025, our Board of Directors had authorized us to repurchase $26.7 billion of our common stock under our common stock repurchase program and $9.7 billion remained available for repurchases under the current authorized program. Repurchased shares are held as authorized but…
• MTSI (MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc.)
• FY2025 10-K: …be required to suspend production, alter manufacturing processes, cease operations or remediate polluted land, air or groundwater, any of which could have a negative effect on our revenue, results of operations and business. Failure to comply with environmental regulations could subject us to civil or criminal…
• FY2025 10-K: …(SSPAs), microwave predistortion linearizers and microwave photonics based in Hamilton, New Jersey (the "Linearizer Acquisition"), which was accounted for as a business combination. We acquired Linearizer to further strengthen our component and subsystem design expertise in our target markets. In connection with the…
• SLAB (SILICON LABORATORIES INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: …granted no MSUs in fiscal 2025, 2024 and 2023. PSUs provide for the rights to acquire a number of shares of common stock for no cash consideration based upon the achievement of specified revenue or profitability objectives during the year. The requisite performance period of these PSUs is approximately three years…
• FY2025 10-K: …Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad, India. We demand excellence in our quality and environmental management systems, which are certified to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 standards, respectively. We are committed to delivering products that meet environmental regulations and requirements, and we…
• POWI (POWER INTEGRATIONS, INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: …the Company's products are found to infringe upon a patent, copyright, trademark, or other proprietary right of a third party (Customer Indemnification). The DSA generally limits the scope of and remedies for the Customer Indemnification obligations in a variety of industry-standard respects, including, but not…
• FY2025 10-K: …are released at the end of the performance year can range from zero to 200 % of the target number depending on the Company's performance. The performance metrics of this program are annual targets consisting of a combination of net revenue, non-GAAP operating income and strategic goals. As the net revenue, non-GAAP…
• MRVL (MARVELL TECHNOLOGY, INC)
• FY2025 10-K: …techniques such as equalization, clock recovery, forward error correction, and coded modulation. We partner with industry-leading cable manufacturers to deliver optimized, tailor-made AECs that meet the unique requirements of each of our hyperscale data center customers. Our PCIe retimers leverage our…
• FY2025 10-K: …("GAAP") requires management to make estimates, judgments and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates, including those related to revenue recognition,…

CSG (reported)

• SLAB (SILICON LABORATORIES INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: …in our backlog are subject to changes in delivery schedules or cancellation at the option of the purchaser, typically without penalty. Our backlog may fluctuate significantly depending upon customer order patterns which may, in turn, vary considerably based on rapidly changing business circumstances. Accordingly, we…
• FY2025 10-K: …incidents . Our CSO has over 27 years of security experience in multiple relevant technology and leadership disciplines, including prior work experience leading cybersecurity teams, business strategies and security solution architecture. He also holds several relevant degrees and certifications, including as a…
• SWKS (SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS, INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: …become more intuitive and integrated, we believe this could drive an inflection in upgrade cycles, leading to a potential tailwind to volumes and content over time. Finally, with the rapid transition towards electrification and advanced safety in vehicles, we are focused on high growth segments and content…
• FY2025 10-K: …thereunto duly authorized. Date: November 7, 2025 SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS, INC. Registrant By: /s/ Philip G. Brace Philip G. Brace President and Chief Executive Officer (Principal Executive Officer) 80 Table of Contents Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below…
• NXPI (NXP Semiconductors N.V.)
• FY2025 10-K: …100 % 8" 0.18-0.50 CMOS, eNVM, BCDMOS Chandler RF, United States 100 % 6" 0.25-0.40 GaN Austin (Ed Bluestein), United States 100 % 8" 0.09-0.18 CMOS, eNVM, BCDMOS, Radar Back-end Kaohsiung, Taiwan 100 % - - NFC, Automotive Car-access, In-Vehicle Networking, Micro-controllers, ADAS (Radar), Analog, Mixed-Signal and…
• FY2025 10-K: …on Microelectronics and Communication Technologies ("IPCEI ME/CT") in multiple EU member states, the duration of which is planned to run until the end of 2029. The conditions to receive the IPCEI ME/CT government assistance include restrictions on eligible expenditures, employment retention, annual budget…
• SYNA (SYNAPTICS INCORPORATED)
• FY2025 10-K: PR&D from our December 2021 acquisition of DSP Group, Inc. ("DSPG"). We recorded the impairment charge as a result of a lack of commitment from certain key customers, no anticipated customer migration to the IPR&D technologies acquired from DSPG and no further development or investment planned for this project. The…
• FY2025 10-K: …over the Company's acquisition-date valuation processes, including controls related to the development of the key assumptions. We evaluated the reasonableness of the Company's 33 Table o f Con tents forecasted revenue assumptions by comparing to historical actual results of the acquired assets and certain peer and…
• LSCC (Lattice Semiconductor Corp)
• FY2025 10-K: …channel and direct sales of silicon-based hardware and silicon-enabling products, as well as the licensing or sale of IP that we have developed or acquired, some of which we use in our products, and certain design services that we may provide. Sales and Customers We primarily sell our products to customers from…
• FY2025 10-K: …lscc:DistributorAMember 2024-12-29 2026-01-03 0000855658 us-gaap:SalesRevenueNetMember us-gaap:CustomerConcentrationRiskMember lscc:DistributorAMember 2023-12-31 2024-12-28 0000855658 us-gaap:SalesRevenueNetMember us-gaap:CustomerConcentrationRiskMember lscc:DistributorAMember 2023-01-01 2023-12-30 0000855658…
• MXL (MaxLinear, Inc.)
• FY2025 10-K: …existing safeguards as necessary; and monitor the effectiveness of our safeguards. We follow the Critical Security Controls, or CIS, guidance to defend our systems and networks against the most prevalent cyber-attacks. We have allocated adequate resources and have designated executives and IT management personnel to…
• FY2025 10-K: …emissions, including in their manufacturing plans and processes. We aim to have a majority of manufacturing partners that are certified with ISO 14001 international standards for environmental management systems and plan to launch manufacturing partner audits in the future. We are committed to the use of a socially…

ACG (reported)

• SWKS (SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS, INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: …not generally require subjective estimates or judgments or would not have a material impact on our results of operations. Our significant accounting policies are described in Note 2 to Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Revenue Recognition. We recognize revenue in accordance with the Financial Accounting…
• FY2025 10-K: …25% investment tax credit for certain investments in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing that are placed in service after December 31, 2022. The impact to the Company's consolidated financial statements related to the CHIPS and Science Act was not material during fiscal 2025, fiscal 2024, or fiscal 2023. 56 Table of…
• AVGO (Broadcom Inc.)
• FY2025 10-K: …2025-11-02 0001730168 avgo:April2033SeniorNotesMember 2024-11-03 0001730168 avgo:April2034SeniorNotesMember 2025-11-02 0001730168 avgo:April2034SeniorNotesMember 2024-11-03 0001730168 avgo:March2021SeniorNotesMember 2025-11-02 0001730168 avgo:March2021SeniorNotesMember 2024-11-03 0001730168…
• FY2025 10-K: 168 srt:AmericasMember avgo:SubscriptionsandServicesMember 2022-10-31 2023-10-29 0001730168 srt:AsiaPacificMember avgo:SubscriptionsandServicesMember 2022-10-31 2023-10-29 0001730168 us-gaap:EMEAMember avgo:SubscriptionsandServicesMember 2022-10-31 2023-10-29 0001730168 2025-11-02 2025-11-02 0001730168…
• QCOM (QUALCOMM INC/DE)
• FY2025 10-K: Snapdragon platforms. Mr. Amon joined Qualcomm in 1995 as an engineer and throughout his tenure at Qualcomm has held several other technical and leadership positions. Mr. Amon has been a member of the board of directors of Adobe Inc. since October 2023. Mr. Amon holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and an honorary…
• FY2025 10-K: …- Elect from December 2024 to February 2025, Deputy Chief Technology Officer from April 2023 to December 2024, and Senior Vice President, Engineering from July 2006 to April 2023. He joined Qualcomm as a Systems Engineer in 1993 and throughout his tenure at Qualcomm has held several other leadership roles within the…
• SIMO (Silicon Motion Technology Corporation)
• FY2025 20-F: …the global leader and pioneer in developing NAND flash controllers for solid state storage devices. The Company currently operates as one reportable segment. The Chief Operating Decision Maker ("CODM") is the Chief Executive Officer, who is directly involved in the Company's operations and product development. The…
• FY2025 20-F: …ADS program. Recent Accounting Pronouncements Accounting Pronouncements Recently Adopted In December 2023, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued an accounting standard update (ASU), ASU 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures ("ASU 2023-09"). Under ASU 2023-09,…
• CRUS (Cirrus Logic, Inc.)
• FY2025 10-K: …ability to compete effectively and to expand our business will depend on our ability to continue to recruit key engineering talent, execute on new product developments, partner with customers to create compelling products for their applications and provide cost efficient versions of existing products. We compete with…
• FY2025 10-K: …deposits or if a depository institution is subject to other adverse conditions in the financial or credit markets, there is no guarantee that we have access to such uninsured deposits, which could restrict access to our cash or cash equivalents and could adversely impact our operating liquidity, financial condition,…

Methodology Note

• Priced-in inversion: the valuation is inverted on the current price to recover the operating-income growth, duration, and steady-state margin the price embeds (ROE for financials, FFO growth for REITs).
• Valuation x-ray: the valuation models, grouped into four families (asset, earnings, relative, growth). Each model is expressed as a price/FV ratio (distance from price), not a point fair-value estimate. The spread across families is the disagreement.
• Economic-unit decomposition (SOTP): each disclosed business unit is assigned its native valuation basis before any multiple is applied. Operating units are valued on enterprise value; funded financial units are valued on their own common equity, because their borrowings fund earning assets rather than levering the parent. A company total is stated only once every material unit carries a supported value and the parent capital bridge reconciles.
• Solvency: net cash/debt, net-debt-to-NOPAT, interest coverage, and share-count CAGR from EDGAR financials (net debt / FFO and fixed-charge coverage for REITs; regulatory-capital framing for financials).
• Peer cohorts: per-segment comparables with deep-linkable SEC filing citations.

Fundamentals sourced from SEC EDGAR filings. Current price from Databento. The priced-in inversion and valuation x-ray are computed by the boothcheck engine; narrative composed by AI from the structured data.