Synopsys Boasts Compelling Growth Outlook With its EDA Portfolio

Business Strategy & Outlook:

Synopsys provides electronic design automation, or EDA, software, intellectual property, and software integrity products that are critical to the semiconductor chip design process. It is expected that as secular trends toward artificial intelligence, 5G communications, autonomous vehicles, and cloud computing, among others, accelerate, Synopsys will benefit from both the rising complexity of chip designs and the advancing digitization of various end markets. The company believes narrow-moat Synopsys has a long growth runway ahead as it continues to make strategic organic and inorganic investments to expand its platform amid a growing semiconductor landscape. Synopsys’ products are transformational in enabling increasingly complex integrated circuit (IC) and system-on-chip (SoC) design. Advancing technologies require these more powerful, precise, and efficient chips, for which EDA software informs the end-to-end process. Synopsys is the largest player in the EDA space, and specifically in digital design as well. With a larger digital exposure, Synopsys privy to higher growth vectors and as a result expected growth greater than that of top competitor Cadence.

Outside of core EDA, the company views Synopsys’ IP and SI businesses as benefiting from industry trends. As systems companies increasingly design their own differentiated silicon in-house, Synopsys will benefit as its customer base expands beyond traditional semiconductor designers. The company expects this trend in achieving technological differentiation through chip customization to support IP adoption, as leveraging IP blocks for standardized components allows for significant time and resource savings and reallocation to differentiating components. Further, given the rising complexity of chip design, rising cost of failure, and increasing importance of software security, Synopsys’ growing SI business presents an important point of differentiation for the company. Reflecting the mission criticality of EDA tools, Synopsys exhibits negligible churn, with customer retention consistently at approximately 100%, and has relationships with all major chip design companies in the United States.

Financial Strengths:

Synopsys is in a healthy financial position. As of January 2022, Synopsys had $1.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents versus $24 million in debt. The firm repaid its $75 million outstanding term loan balance in 2021 and is now solely liable for a 12-year credit agreement of approximately $33 million in aggregate, of which about $24 million is outstanding as of January 2022. Company do not have any material concerns about Synopsys’ ability to finance this debt. Approximately 90% of Synopsys’ revenue is of a recurring nature, given that the firm primarily sells time-based licenses. Synopsys’ average license length is approximately three years, with periodic software updates delivered throughout the license’s term ensuring continued access to Synopsys’ evolving technology. The ratable revenue of time-based licenses tends to smooth returns compared with utilizing a perpetual license model, allowing for better visibility into the future of the business. Synopsys is profitable on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis and demonstrates strong cash flows. Free cash flow margin has grown from 21% in fiscal 2017 to 33% in fiscal 2021, and return on invested capital is increasingly widening its spread above cost of capital. The company expects margins to continue to expand and believes management will deliver on its target of 100 basis points of annual non-GAAP operating margin expansion. The company expects healthy growth in free cash flow as industry tailwinds lead to long-term growth for Synopsys.

Bulls Say:

Secular tailwinds in chip design such as 5G, Internet of Things, AI, and others should increase demand for EDA tools and support growth for Synopsys.
The growing Software Integrity business enables a larger TAM for Synopsys and addresses expanding demand for real-time identification of security vulnerabilities across the entire software development lifecycle.
Synopsys provides mission-critical EDA software, having relationships with all major domestic chip designers and retention rates of approximately 100%

Company Description:

Synopsys is a provider of electronic design automation software, intellectual property, and software integrity products. EDA software automates the chip design process, enhancing design accuracy, productivity, and complexity in a full-flow end-to-end solution. The firm’s growing SI business allows customers to continuously manage and test the code base for security and quality. Synopsys’ comprehensive portfolio is benefiting from a mutual convergence of semiconductor companies moving up-stack toward systems-like companies, and systems companies moving down-stack toward in-house chip design. The resulting expansion in EDA customers alongside secular digitalization of various end markets benefits EDA vendors like Synopsys.

(Source: Morningstar)

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