Yageo Corp’s (國巨) share price yesterday reached NT$1,000 for the first time in the company’s 31-year history, with investors buoyed by the rosy business outlook for the nation’s top passive component supplier.
Yageo became a member of the exclusive NT$1,000 club on the local stock market, joining Apple Inc camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光).
Largan shares yesterday closed 2.73 percent lower at NT$4,090 in Taipei trading.
Yageo shares surged 9.53 percent, as the company’s market value ballooned to NT$350.6 billion (US$11.77 billion) from NT$124.25 billion on Jan. 2.
The shares have risen 282 percent since the beginning of this year, outperforming the TAIEX’s 1.53 percent increase during the same period.
The rally came after Yageo reported a net profit of NT$2.61 billion for last month amid persistent demand for passive components.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$7.43.
In just a month, Yageo has earned about 63 percent of the NT$4.26 billion, or earnings per share of NT$12.15, the company made during the whole of last quarter, boding well for the company’s earnings this quarter and the rest of the year.
Yageo last month said that the market uptrend would extend into the rest of this year and next, fueled primarily by increasing demand for high-margin products used in electric cars, autonomous vehicles, industrial devices, premium smartphones and new applications, such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence devices.
Average selling prices have been on the rise due to a supply crunch, the firm said.
In his annual report to the company’s shareholders, Yageo chairman Pierre Chen (陳泰銘) said that the company would make every effort to grow earnings and strengthen its global competitiveness, including enhancing its technological capabilities and optimizing its product portfolio.
Yageo aims to increase revenue contribution from higher-margin passive components for electric cars and industrial devices, he said.
Yageo would take appropriate measures to hedge against foreign-exchange-rate volatility, which is considered one of the uncertainties the company is facing this year, the report said.
Global trade disputes, spreading trade protectionism and price competition are also challenges Yageo has to overcome this year, Chen said.
Yageo had a 34 percent share of the global chip resistor market last year, while seizing 13 percent of the multilayer ceramic capacitor market.
The company is scheduled to hold an annual shareholders’ meeting on June 5 to vote on the management’s proposal to distribute a dividend of NT$15 per common share from its earnings per share of NT$15.64 last year and NT$0.64 per share from its capital surplus.
Packed into a small room, a drone, bipedal robot, supermarket checkout and other devices showcase a vision of China’s software future — one where an operating system developed by national champion Huawei (華為) has replaced Windows and Android. The collection is at the Harmony Ecosystem Innovation Center in the southern city of Shenzhen, a local government-owned entity that encourages authorities, companies and hardware makers to develop software using OpenHarmony (鴻蒙), an open-source version of the operating system Huawei launched five years ago after US sanctions cut off support for Google’s Android. While Huawei’s recent strong-selling smartphone launches have been closely watched for
The waves of the Aegean Sea lap gently at the tables and chairs of two beach restaurants on Greece’s Halkidiki peninsula. It is an idyllic scene, but one that is totally illegal. Like many others in Greece, the two establishments on Pefkochori Beach do not have a license to set up shop so close to the water. After a wave of protests last summer by locals about bars and restaurants illegally covering beaches with sunbeds and tables, the Greek state is taking action. It is cracking down on rogue tourist practices with surveillance drones, satellite imagery and a special app
South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc, the world’s No. 2 memorychip maker, is to invest 103 trillion won (US$74.6 billion) through 2028 to strengthen its chips business, focusing on artificial intelligence (AI), its parent SK Group said yesterday. SK Group also said it plans to secure 80 trillion won by 2026 to invest in AI and semiconductors as well as fund shareholder returns, while streamlining its more than 175 subsidiaries. The sprawling conglomerate outlined the plans following a two-day strategy meeting, aiming to revive the group after SK Hynix, its main money maker, and the group’s electric vehicle battery arm suffered heavy losses. SK
Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), a subsidiary of Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車), yesterday said it is again offering a NT$100,000 discount for its entry-level n7 electric vehicle models. The n7’s price has gone down from NT$1.099 million to NT$999,000, Luxgen said, adding that there are 25,000 preorders for the model. MG Motor’s electric hatchback, the MG4, entered the market in the middle of last month, with a starting price of NT$990,000. China Motor Corp (中華汽車), which distributes MG vehicles in Taiwan, said it aims to sell 1,600 MG4s this year. MG, originally a British brand, was acquired by China’s SAIC Motor