Pegatron Corp (和碩), an assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhone and iPad products, yesterday posted 80.6 percent growth in net income for the first quarter of the year.
During the first three months of the year, Pegatron’s net income expanded to NT$2.31 billion (US$78.52 million) from NT$1.28 billion the previous year, with earnings per share of NT$1.01.
However, the figure indicates a 13 percent drop from NT$2.65 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, because the first quarter of a year is traditionally an off-peak season for the company, Pegatron told an investors’ conference yesterday.
As product mix and manufacturing efficiency continued to improve, Pegatron’s gross margin increased to 3.1 percent last quarter from 3 percent during the same period last year and 2.8 percent in the previous quarter, the company’s report showed.
“Given that there are still many uncertainties in the market, we remain cautiously optimistic on sales in the second quarter of the year. Pegatron’s semi-annual sales are expected to be 40 percent to 60 percent in the first and second half of the year. Growth potential might be stronger during the July-to-December period,” Pegatron chief executive officer Jason Cheng (程建中) said.
Pegatron estimated its second-quarter notebook, motherboard and desktop shipments would increase by between 5 percent and 10 percent quarter-on-quarter, but its second-quarter sales of consumer products would drop by between 25 percent and 30 percent ahead of clients’ new product launches later this year.
Cheng declined to indicate if Apple’s long-expected mid-end iPhone to be launched later this year would be the driver of Pegatron’s sales in the second half of the year.
However, Cheng said expansion of Pegatron’s capacity is expected to help the company meet increased demand from clients during the third and fourth quarter this year.
Pegatron said its design and manufacturing service (DMS) sales last quarter totaled NT$195 billion, down 18.2 percent from NT$239 billion in the fourth quarter of last year because of lower orders from clients for communications products.
The New Taipei City-based company said its first-quarter sales of communications products fell 30 percent quarter-on-quarter, while sales of consumer products increased 3 percent and sales of information technology products grew 1 percent on a quarterly basis.
With capacity expanded, Pegatron forecast its sales of communications products would account for up to 40 percent of the company’s total sales during the second half of the year. Last quarter, sales of communications products only accounted for 24 percent of its total sales, the company’s report showed.
Pegatron’s shares closed down 0.51 percent at NT$48.95 in Taipei trading yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which climbed 1.27 percent.
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