Largan Precision Co (大立光), which supplies camera lenses to Apple Inc, yesterday posted 62 percent annual growth in first-quarter net profit to NT$2.99 billion (US$99.08 million), due to increased shipments of higher-specification camera modules.
Earnings per share (EPS) during the January-to-March period were NT$22.36 — the second-highest level in the company’s history. The company reported a record EPS of NT$25.38 for the fourth quarter of last year.
Gross margin last quarter reached 55.6 percent, the highest since the fourth quarter of 2007, because the company shipped fewer handset camera modules, which are bundled with voice coil motors (VCM), and more higher-spec products, Largan said.
Gross margin also improved due to a better product portfolio, foreign exchange gains and improvements in yield rates, the firm added.
“The trend that more companies are using higher-spec camera modules is certain,” Largan chief executive Adam Lin (林恩平) said during a conference call.
“We forecast that sales in this and next month will continue growing sequentially, based on orders in hand,” Lin said.
Last month, Largan’s sales rose 77.08 percent month-on-month and 74.64 percent year-on-year to NT$2.83 billion.
The company also supplies camera modules to smartphone vendors such as Taiwan’s HTC Corp (宏達電), China’s Xiaomi Corp (小米), ZTE Corp (中興), Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Coolpad Group Ltd (酷派).
Lin said many smartphone and tablet vendors now demand camera modules with wide-angle and large-aperture lenses, as they intend to provide customers with improved products that can be used to take higher-quality pictures.
A handset camera module cannot be categorized as “high-spec” or “high-end” just because it has a high pixel count. Other features, such as whether a camera can take pictures in low-light environments, should be considered as well, he added.
In terms of pixel count, Largan said its shipments of camera modules with resolutions of more than 10 megapixels have been growing every quarter since last year, accounting for 10 to 20 percent of its total shipments last quarter.
Shipments of camera modules with resolutions of more than 8 megapixels comprised 30 to 40 percent of the company’s total shipments last quarter, followed by 5-megapixel modules with a 20 percent to 30 percent share, it added.
Overall shipments of camera modules in the first quarter dropped 27 percent from the previous quarter because of seasonal factors, but rose 35 percent from a year ago, the Greater Taichung-based company said.
Largan’s shares closed up 3.85 percent at NT$1,755 in Taipei trading yesterday, retaining their place as the highest-priced stock on the local bourse.
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