Shares of Inventec Corp (英業達), one of Taiwan’s leading notebook computer original design manufacturing service providers, soared yesterday morning after it reported better-than-expected shipments for the third quarter, dealers said.
Many investors have high hopes that Inventec’s bottom line for July to last month will improve on the back of its solid shipments data and its efforts to diversify its product portfolio, dealers said.
Inventec’s stock price rallied 3.77 percent to end at NT$28.9. The weighted index was up 0.05 percent at 8,362.87 points.
“The higher-than-expected shipments largely reflected increasing orders from two of Inventec’s major customers — Hewlett-Packard [HP] and Toshiba — that have launched new models to encourage buying,” Ta Ching Securities (大慶證券) analyst Andy Hsu said.
Inventec said its notebook computer shipments for the third quarter hit 5.95 million units, up 32.2 percent from the second quarter and surpassing the company’s August forecast of about a 10 percent increase.
Last month alone, Inventec’s notebook computer shipments rose to 2.35 million units, up 17.5 percent from the August figure of 2 million units. The company recorded shipments of 1.6 million units in July. Last month’s figure was the highest so far this year.
“Many consumers had put their purchasing plans on hold, waiting for new models from international brands such as HP and Toshiba. That’s why Inventec’s notebook computer shipments rose from month to month in the third quarter,” Hsu said.
In the first nine months of this year, Inventec’s notebook computer shipments totaled 14.40 million units and the total for the full year is widely expected to surpass the 17 million units recorded last year.
Hsu said the better-than-expected shipments are likely to strengthen Inventec’s profitability for the third quarter, an expectation that prompted many investors to pick up the stock soon after the local bourse opened.
“Inventec’s earnings per share for the July to last month period is likely to range between NT$0.6 and NT$0.7, compared with NT$0.45 in the second quarter,” Hsu said. “Gross margin is expected to continue to improve in the third quarter.”
In the second quarter, the company’s gross margin stood at 5 percent, up from 4.9 percent in the first quarter.
“I suspect the buying in Inventec shares came largely from foreign institutional investors, who picked up a net 356 million Inventec shares between July 1 and Oct. 3,” Hsu said.
With the strong foreign institutional buying, Inventec shares rose more than 66 percent between July 1 and Thursday, according to stock exchange statistics.
“The stock has become technically healthier than ever. I think it will be not at all difficult for Inventec shares to challenge NT$30 in the short term,” Hsu said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure