Hermes Microvision Inc (漢微科) on Tuesday said its sales for this quarter may flatten from last quarter, when sales hit a record level, but the company forecast it would report strong sales performance in the final quarter of the year.
The company said sales for next quarter would be driven by semiconductor company orders of its electron-beam wafer inspection equipment for advanced process technologies.
Overall, sales this year are forecast to grow by between 30 percent and 40 percent year-on-year, Hermes Microvision chairman Hsu Chin-jung (許金榮) said in a conference call about the company’s results. That is higher than the projected annual growth of between 25 percent and 35 percent the company forecast earlier this year.
The revised sales guidance has led Citigroup to raise its revenue forecast for Hermes Microvision to NT$7.15 billion (US$238 million) this year, but lower its net profit estimate to NT$2.97 billion, or earnings per share of NT$41.77, on concerns about lower margins.
SinoPac Securities Co (永豐金證券) also forecast Hermes Microvision’s sales for this year would grow 34.3 percent year-on-year to NT$7.17 billion and that net profit is to expand 30.6 percent to NT$3.06 billion, or earnings per share of NT$43.12.
In the second quarter of the year, consolidated revenue grew 61 percent quarter-on-quarter and 46 percent year-on-year to NT$1.88 billion, but net profit only increased 3 percent quarter-on-quarter and 8 percent year-on-year to NT$602.51 million, or earnings per share of NT$8.47, because of foreign-exchange losses and higher taxes on undistributed earnings, company data showed.
Asked about the company’s order visibility in the near term, chief financial officer Leo Shen (沈孝廉) said that the situation this quarter is better than last quarter, with contributions mainly coming from US customers, but that the delivery schedule for its inspection tools may come later than expected.
The company said it orders momentum next quarter would strengthen further, considering semiconductor firms’ aggressive migration to 14-nanometer and 16-nanometer process technologies.
Meanwhile, Hsu said that according to his knowledge, parent company Hermes Epitek Corp (漢民) has no plans to sell Hermes Microvision shares in the second half.
Hermes Epitek, which holds about a 45 percent stake in its subsidiary, would still likely gradually lower its stake in the long term, Hsu said, without giving a time frame.
Hermes Microvision shares closed at NT$1,185 yesterday in Taipei trading. They have risen 22.42 percent since the beginning of the year.
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