Undervalued Synaptics Wows at CES 2018

We came away from

The firm continues to boast advanced offerings for smartphones with its touch controllers, display driver chips, and fingerprint sensors, while also showcasing new solutions for consumer Internet of Things like smart assistant speakers and video streaming devices.

One key product we saw showcased at Synaptics’ booth was an upcoming Vivo smartphone with the world’s first fingerprint sensor in the OLED display, which we note unlocked instantaneously and seamlessly. Vivo was ranked sixth in Gartner’s recent smartphone market share data (third-quarter 2017), and we foresee other leading OEMs also adopting the advanced optical fingerprint sensor. Additionally, premium speaker provider Harman Kardon will be utilizing Synaptics’ fair-field voice processors for its Amazon Alexa voice-activated smart speaker family.

Overall, we believe the no-moat entity has a nicely diversified set of opportunities coupled with cutting-edge solutions across touch, display, voice, and video that make shares attractive relative to our unchanged $64 fair value estimate.

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