Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which this week launched its new Transformer and ZenFone mobile devices in Las Vegas, yesterday said that sales for last quarter rose from the previous quarter and year-on-year.
“The strong performance last quarter was driven by robust demand for Asustek’s smartphones and notebooks,” Asustek chief financial officer David Chang (張偉明) said by telephone.
Consolidated sales were NT$137.75 billion (US$4.3 billion) last quarter, up 5.4 percent from the previous year’s NT$130.69 billion and up 11.16 percent from the previous quarter’s NT$123.91 billion.
However, annual revenue only rose by 0.3 percent to NT$477.21 billion last year from NT$463.28 billion in 2013.
Yuanta Securities and Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) yesterday said Asustek’s fourth-quarter revenue is 9 percent more than the market consensus, mainly driven by contributions from its smartphones and notebooks.
“Asustek launched a smartphone under its second brand Pegasus in the Chinese market last month, which helped boost the firm’s monthly sales,” a Yuanta analyst, who declined to be named, said by telephone.
However, Chang said that foreign-exchange losses due to currency volatility in emerging markets in the past few months might “slightly” affect Asustek’s gross margin and operating margin for last quarter. Last month, the company stopped shipping products to Russia in view of the plunge of the ruble.
“We will recognize exchange losses for the last quarter,” Chang said, adding that it was a one-off situation.
UBS Securities Pte Ltd said it expects Asustek to post weaker-than-expected results this quarter due to seasonal factors.
“As most of the new products will not ramp up shipments until next quarter, we think there could be potential downside trend,” UBS analyst Arthur Hsieh (謝宗文) said in a client note on Tuesday, forecasting that revenue would decline 11 percent from last quarter.
Asustek shares declined 1.44 percent to close at NT$343 in Taipei trading yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which fell 0.24 percent.
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