Largan Precision Co (大立光) yesterday reported a 38.67 percent increase in consolidated revenue for last month from a year earlier to NT$5.44 billion (US$179.5 million), the highest level for March in the company’s history.
Last month’s figure also grew 48.26 percent from February, ending three consecutive months of sequential losses, company data showed.
ORDERS CONTINUE
The Taichung-based company is the world’s largest supplier of handset camera lenses, focusing on high-end products for Apple Inc’s iPhone and Android phone vendors, such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Samsung Electronics Co.
Largan last month benefited from pull-in orders related to the iPhone SE2, Samsung’s Galaxy S20, Huawei’s P40 and other new handset models, analysts said.
However, as the COVID-19 pandemic spans the world, revenue growth might weaken this month, they said.
"Given 98 percent of Largan’s revenue is from smartphones, it will be a tough year for the company, as the smartphone industry will likely face both a shipment decline and product mix weakness in 2020," Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said in a note yesterday.
Largan’s 20-megapixel lenses and high-end models, which command higher prices, accounted for 20 to 30 percent of its total sales last month, while its 10-megapixel lenses made up 40 to 50 percent and 8-megapixel lenses 10 to 20 percent, the company said in a statement.
First-quarter consolidated revenue increased 34.52 percent from last year to NT$13.21 billion, higher than Capital Investment Management Corp’s (群益投顧) NT$11.94 billion estimate.
However, revenue fell 28.02 percent from the previous quarter due to lower pull-in orders from Chinese phone brands amid the pandemic, as well as the low-season effect last quarter, Capital said in a note.
Largan is to release its earnings results for the first quarter at an investors’ conference on Thursday, and give sales guidance for the second quarter, as well as the company’s dividend policy after it posted record earnings per share last year of NT$210.69.
As the firm’s capacity utilization rate declined, first-quarter gross margin is estimated to fall 5.27 percentage points quarter-on-quarter to 65.85 percent and net profit is forecast to decline 31.2 percent to NT$5.57 billion, or earnings per share of NT$41.52, Capital said.
Largan shares on Wednesday fell 1.83 percent to NT$3,760 in Taipei trading. They have dropped 24.8 percent this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
This story has been updated since it was first published.
TRADE WAR: Tariffs should also apply to any goods that pass through the new Beijing-funded port in Chancay, Peru, an adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump said A veteran adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump is proposing that the 60 percent tariffs that Trump vowed to impose on Chinese goods also apply to goods from any country that pass through a new port that Beijing has built in Peru. The duties should apply to goods from China or countries in South America that pass through the new deep-water port Chancay, a town 60km north of Lima, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, an adviser to the Trump transition team who served as senior director for the western hemisphere on the White House National Security Council in his first administration. “Any product going
TECH SECURITY: The deal assures that ‘some of the most sought-after technology on the planet’ returns to the US, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said The administration of US President Joe Biden finalized its CHIPS Act incentive awards for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), marking a major milestone for a program meant to bring semiconductor production back to US soil. TSMC would get US$6.6 billion in grants as part of the contract, the US Department of Commerce said in a statement yesterday. Though the amount was disclosed earlier this year as part of a preliminary agreement, the deal is now legally binding — making it the first major CHIPS Act award to reach this stage. The chipmaker, which is also taking up to US$5 billion
High above the sparkling surface of the Athens coastline, the cranes for building the 50-floor luxury tower centerpiece of Greece’s future “smart city” look out over the Saronic Gulf. At their feet, construction machinery stirs up dust. Its backers say the 8 billion euro (US$8.43 billion) project financed by private funds is a symbol of Greece’s renaissance after the years of financial stagnation that saw investors flee the country. However, critics see it more as a future “ghetto for the rich.” It is hard to imagine that 10km from the Acropolis, a new city “three times the size of Monaco”
STRUGGLING BUSINESS: South Korea’s biggest company and semiconductor manufacturer’s buyback fuels concerns that it could be missing out on the AI boom Samsung Electronics Co plans to buy back about 10 trillion won (US$7.2 billion) of its own stock over the next year, putting in motion one of the larger shareholder return programs in its history. South Korea’s biggest company would repurchase the stock in stages over the coming 12 months, it said in a regulatory filing on Friday. As a first step, it would buy back about 3 trillion won of paper starting today up until February next year, all of which it would cancel. The board would deliberate on how best to effect the remaining 7 trillion won of buybacks. The move
RSS