Local electronics maker Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) expects revenues to continue to grow in the current quarter after reporting stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings, a company executive said yesterday.
Lite-On’s improving cost structure and better operating efficiency appears to have helped it offset the economic slump, but the company was still cautious about its outlook.
“The macroeconomy is still murky ... [But] it would be fair to say that the company’s revenue will follow the uptrend in July, during which the company reported a 6 percent increase from June,” chief executive Terng Kuang-chung (滕光中) told a media briefing yesterday.
Lite-On’s revenues may grow between 15 percent and 20 percent quarter-on-quarter in the three-month period to next month, driven by further growth from LEDs and power, JP Morgan forecast.
Lite-On made NT$22.68 billion (US$688 million) in revenues last quarter, down 15 percent from the same period of last year. Power supply is its biggest revenue source, at about 30 percent, and LED backlighting for notebooks and PC monitors is its fast-growing business.
The company’s LED backlighting business would surpass power supply in terms of growth speed this quarter, Terng said. Handset casing and keyboard businesses would also be strong areas, he said.
On Thursday, Lite-On posted stronger-than-expected net profits of NT$1.63 billion, or NT$0.75 a share, helped by improving operational efficiency and improving non-operating business, compared with NT$1.44 billion, or NT$0.67 a share, a year ago.
The second-quarter performance beat JP Morgan’s estimate of NT$1.44 billion in net income.
The results represented a more than four-fold growth increase from earnings of NT$373 million in the first quarter, the company said, citing better operational efficiency and improving non-operating business.
Operating margin rose to 6.2 percent in the quarter ending on June 30, from 4.4 percent last quarter and 4.1 percent a year ago. Non-operating margin increased to NT$463 million from losses of NT$369 million in the first quarter, mainly because component subsidiary Perlos swung back into profit in the second quarter.
JP Morgan gave an “overweight” rating on Lite-On, with a target price of NT$42, a report dated Aug. 13 said.
Shares of Lite-On jumped 5.85 percent to NT$37.1 yesterday, outperforming the TAIEX’s 1.78 percent gain.
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