By Mauro Orru


STMicroelectronics NV on Thursday posted a surge in revenue and profit for the fourth quarter led by growth at its automotive and microcontrollers divisions.

The European chip maker said net revenue climbed to $4.42 billion compared with $3.56 billion in the 2021 fourth quarter, with the company's automotive business contributing $1.70 billion.

Net profit jumped to $1.25 billion from $750 million.

Gross profit--a closely watched metric--rose to $2.10 billion from $1.61 billion with a gross margin of 47.5%, while operating income increased to $1.29 billion from $885 million with an operating margin of 29.1%.

Analysts polled by FactSet had forecast net revenue of $4.41 billion and a net profit of $1.07 billion.

STMicroelectronics had expected fourth-quarter net revenue of $4.40 billion at the midpoint, and a gross margin of 47.3%.

For the first quarter, the company targets net revenue of $4.20 billion at the midpoint, and a gross margin of 48.0%, plus or minus 200 basis points.

"Based on our strong customer demand and increased manufacturing capacity, we will drive the company based on a plan for FY23 revenues in the range of $16.8 billion to $17.8 billion," STMicroelectronics Chief Executive Jean-Marc Chery said.


Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com; @MauroOrru94


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-26-23 0134ET