Nanya Technology Corp’s shares (南亞科技) rallied to a five-month high after the DRAM chipmaker posted a spike in net profit for last quarter, as chip prices rose on supply constraints.
Net profit nearly doubled to NT$3.95 billion (US$130.6 million) during the quarter ending on Dec. 31, from NT$1.98 billion in the previous quarter, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
That was the company’s third consecutive profitable quarter since the fourth quarter of 2012, when Nanya reported a net loss of NT$8.88 billion.
For the whole of last year, the Taoyuan-based company made a net profit of NT$8.13 billion, compared with a net loss of NT$36.04 billion in 2012, ending six consecutive years of losses.
Revenue grew 8.47 percent to NT$12.42 billion last quarter from the third quarter’s NT$11.45 billion. For all of last year, revenue expanded 38.58 percent to NT$46.95 billion from NT$33.88 billion in 2012.
Nanya’s shares soared 6.92 percent to NT$5.87, while those of Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), a DRAM joint venture between Nanya and Micron Technology Inc, dropped 1.54 percent to NT$25.6 yesterday.
Meanwhile, Inotera’s shares posted the highest gains among the 838 companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange last year as the DRAM industry hit a turning point. According to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Inotera’s shares rose 468.48 percent during the past year, providing investors with the highest return in the market based on hopes that its bottom line will continue to improve on the back of a recovery in DRAM prices.
The gains posted by Inotera significantly outperformed the broader market, where the weighted index rose 11.85 percent last year.
Since major DRAM manufacturers around the world have been gearing up to cut production and rein in supply, product prices bounced back sharply last year and continue to grow this year, market analysts said.
A fire in early September affecting the production of a plant in China run by South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc gave another boost to DRAM prices.
In the first nine months of last year, Inotera’s earnings per share stood at NT$1.78, compared with NT$2.26 in loss per share recorded in the same period of 2012.
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