Shares of tire maker Cheng Shin Rubber Industry Co (正新橡膠) have outperformed the broader market by about 28 percent so far this year, but could rise further as the firm continues to benefit from steady growth in demand and lower raw material prices, analysts said.
The company’s shares closed at NT$97.6 on Friday after briefly reaching a yearly high of NT$98. They have risen 29.44 percent this year, compared with the TAIEX’s 1.59 percent increase.
Last week, UBS Securities Ltd raised its recommendation on the firm to “buy” from “neutral” and lifted its target price to NT$110 from NT$85, while Credit Suisse kept its “outperforming” rating on the company with an NT$105 target price.
Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券) also reiterated its “add” rating for Cheng Shin and raised its target price from NT$98 to NT$110.
The brokerages’ forecasts came after the Yuanlin (員林), Changhua County-based company told an analysts’ meeting on Wednesday that it was optimistic about this year’s outlook.
During the meeting, Cheng Shin said its new plants in China were running at nearly full capacity and that it was considering setting up production bases in India and Indonesia, according to brokerages.
As major raw materials costs for tire-making in the first quarter have declined by between 4 percent and 9 percent from the fourth quarter last year, and are likely to stay low this quarter, analysts said Cheng Shin could see continued margin improvement this quarter.
“With average selling prices remaining stable, while input costs continue to trend lower, we think Cheng Shin’s gross margin could surprise the market on the upside in the first half of 2013,” Credit Suisse analyst Jeremy Chen (陳建名) said in a note on Thursday.
Cheng Shin could also see annual sales increase by between 10 percent and 17 percent this year to a range between NT$143.27 billion and NT$152.6 billion (US$4.78 billion to US$5.09 billion), while net profit could expand by between 22 percent and 25 percent to between NT$19.45 billion and NT$19.57 billion, brokerages said.
Last year, Cheng Shin’s revenue rose 8.6 percent to NT$130.27 billion from NT$119.96 billion a year earlier.
The company’s profit jumped 85 percent to NT$15.9 billion from NT$8.59 billion the previous year.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last