Hiwin Technologies Corp (上銀科技), which makes machine tools like ballscrews and linear guideways, on Friday last week said that its board had approved a plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.7 and a stock dividend of 3 percent per share this year.
The dividend plan is based on the company’s earnings last year of NT$2.02 billion (US$66.29 million), or NT$7.96 per share, according to the company’s filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Earnings last year were 0.5 percent higher than the NT$2.01 billion, or NT$7.91 per share, it made in 2012, the filing showed.
The proposed cash dividend translates into a payout ratio of 33.92 percent, which is slightly lower than the 34.13 percent a year ago, and a dividend yield of 0.95 percent, based on its share price of NT$283 on Friday.
The plan still has to be approved at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting, which is scheduled for June 27.
Hiwin posted a revenue of NT$12.44 billion last year, up 0.57 percent from NT$12.37 billion a year ago, the filing said.
Daiwa Capital Markets on Wednesday upgraded Hiwin to “buy” from “outperform” and raised its target price for the company to NT$385 from NT$300, citing its strong outlook on the back of the improvement in the purchasing managers’ index in Europe since October last year.
“Our research on Taiwanese machine-tool makers shows strong growth momentum in sales of machine tools in Europe. This is especially important for Hiwin, in our view, as Europe accounts for a high proportion, or about 25 percent, of the firm’s total sales,” Daiwa analysts Christine Wang (王琦清) and John Lai said in a report.
Wang and Lai added that they expected the demand recovery in Europe to be sustainable.
Hiwin is likely to post a revenue of NT$15.87 billion and profit of NT$3.05 billion this year, Daiwa said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by