Power Integrations Seeing A Temporary Brownout

Even differentiated growth stories are often bounded by the performance of the underlying markets they serve, and so it seems with Power Integrations (NASDAQ:POWI). After a soft third quarter that saw 13% sequential revenue contraction, management guided to even weaker fourth quarter results and the company is likely to see a year-over-year decline in 2023 as the company sees inventory corrections across much of its business.

Even so, the shares have held up pretty well, only declining about 7% over the past year and outperforming the semiconductor industry index (the SOX) by more than 20%. Performance compared to other power-heavy semiconductor stocks has been more mixed, with onsemi (ON) and Analog Devices (ADI) outperforming and Infineon (OTCQX:IFNNY) underperforming. Pull the comparison out to three years and Power Integrations has done a little better than the SOX, a little worse than Analog and Infineon, and nowhere near as well as onsemi, which I attribute at least in part to POWI’s robust valuation in years past.

Looking at the investment case, I see some similarities with names like Lattice (LSCC) and Silicon Labs (SLAB) where valuations have gotten a little less demanding but where it’s still hard to call them conventional bargains. I’m not a big believer in “ignore valuation and just buy”, but if you want a solid multiyear growth semiconductor story this is a name to look at today.

 

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Power Integrations Seeing A Temporary Brownout