Silicon substrate maker Kinsus Interconnect Technology Corp (景碩科技) yesterday said its net income reached a five-year high last quarter, with analysts saying the company’s outlook remain promising.
In the July-to-September period, the company’s earnings rose 1.89 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$848 million (US$28.8 million), according to a company filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Earnings per share were NT$1.9 last quarter, compared with NT$1.87 in the previous quarter, Kinsus said.
The company’s gross margin was 28.05 percent last quarter, up 1.9 percentage points from the previous quarter, after last quarter’s revenue increased 4.92 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$6.15 billion, the second-highest level for the firm, Kinsus said.
Overall, the company reported earnings of NT$2.44 billion in the first three quarters this year, or NT$5.47 per share, with gross margin of 26.74 percent and cumulative revenue of NT$17.34 billion over the same period, company data showed.
Investors have become cautious about end-market demand in the technology sector in view of signs of a slowdown in broad-based demand for the second half this year, with Kinsus’ substrate products mainly used in communication devices seeing headwinds from slower growth in smartphones in recent months.
However, Yuanta Securities Corp (元大證券) said Kinsus would see long-term trend of earnings growth continue, driven by further proliferation of higher-end mobile devices and the fourth-generation telecom service base stations.
The company’s bottom line will also obtain support from narrowing losses from its printed circuit board business and because of Apple Inc’s application processor substrate orders, Yuanta analyst Andrew Chen (陳治宇) said in a note to clients yesterday.
Chen forecast revenue for this quarter is likely to decline 3.5 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$5.94 billion and earnings could be 5.2 percent sequentially lower to NT$804 million.
Still, Yuanta retained its recommendation on Kinsus’ shares at “buy” rating but raised its target price to NT$127 from NT$125.
Shares of Kinsus rose 0.47 percent to NT$106 yesterday. The shares have increased 16.36 percent since the beginning of the year, outperforming the broader market’s 9.2 percent, the stock exchange’s data showed.
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
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
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