Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world’s largest contract PC maker, yesterday said net income in the second quarter contracted 13 percent from the first quarter due to foreign-exchange losses.
While the company’s operating income surged 49 percent to NT$4.31 billion (US$143.5 million) in the April-to-June quarter from the NT$2.89 billion seen in the previous quarter, net income dropped from NT$4.68 billion to NT$4.07 billion as Quanta saw a foreign-exchange loss of NT$192 million.
The company posted a foreign-exchange gain of NT$1.22 billion in the first quarter.
Net income for the second quarter fell short of the expectations of Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券) analyst Arthur Liao (廖顯毅), who had estimated Quanta would post a net profit of NT$5.43 billion.
Quanta said its gross margin climbed to about a five-year high of 4.93 percent in the second quarter, from 4.05 percent in the first quarter, thanks to higher sales of its non-PC products.
Operating margin also improved from 1.34 percent to 2.01 percent last quarter, the best seen in two years.
The company’s gross margin and operating margin surpassed Liao’s forecasts of 4.3 percent and 1.8 percent respectively.
Quanta vice chairman C.C. Leung (梁次震) forecast that notebook computer shipments would grow by between 12 and 17 percent in the second half of this year.
“The second half is set to be a better period than the first half,” Leung said. “A reduction in prices and PC replacement demand are set to help stimulate sales.”
Laptop sales this quarter are expected to grow 10 percent from the past quarter’s 115 million units, Leung said.
Quanta counts US-based Hewlett-Packard Co (HP), Apple Inc and Taiwan’s Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) among its major clients.
In the first six months of the year, Quanta’s net profit increased 3.1 percent to NT$8.74 billion, compared with the NT$8.48 billion seen in the same period last year. Revenue rose 10.8 percent to NT$430.34 billion from NT$388.52 billion, with non-PC products accounting for between 35 percent and 40 percent of total sales.
Shares of Quanta rose 1.08 percent to NT$84.4 per share yesterday, the highest in two weeks, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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