St Shine Optical Co Ltd (精華光學), the nation’s biggest contact lens maker, last week announced it would distribute a record high dividend on strong earnings recorded last year, but a foreign brokerage gave a reserved outlook for this year due to a lack of growth catalysts.
Shares in the maker of Ticon (帝康) brand contact lenses on Friday rallied for the second consecutive session in Taipei trading after the company reported a day earlier that its earnings had peaked in the final quarter of last year.
St Shine on Thursday reported that its net income for the final quarter of last year rose 18.1 percent annually to NT$484 million (US$15.9 million).
The company said the earnings gain last quarter was driven by a surge in rush orders.
To address the rising orders, the company expanded its production lines by one to 57 in the October-to-December quarter last year, it said.
Overall, the company’s total annual output increased 9 percent to 720 million units last year from the previous year.
REVENUE INCREASE
Total revenue also increased 10.21 percent to NT$6.46 billion, while net income grew 22.09 percent to NT$1.78 billion for the whole of last year, with earnings per share of NT$35.26, the company said.
Buoyed by its solid financial performance, St Shine said its board on Thursday proposed to distribute a cash dividend of NT$27 per share, which would be one of the highest among the nation’s publicly traded companies.
The proposed dividend translates into a yield of 4.23 percent based on the company’s closing stock price of NT$638 on the Taipei Exchange on Friday.
The stock has gained 3.74 percent so far this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange’s data showed.
However, Daiwa Capital Markets Inc said in a client note that it was cautious about St Shine’s outlook this year.
In a note issued on Thursday, Daiwa said St Shine would face lingering margin pressure and capacity constraints this year, as only a portion of the 12 additional production lines are expected to enter mass production toward the end of this year or next year.
FOREX RISKS
In addition, foreign-exchange risks could also affect St Shine’s sales in Japan, which made up 70 percent of the company’s total sales last year, the note said.
If the yen weakens further against the US dollar, St Shine could be compelled to extend discounts to its clients in Japan, leading to a decline in margins, Daiwa said.
The company’s gross margin last quarter slipped from 43 percent to 42.3 percent and operating margin fell to 32.4 percent from 36.6 percent, due to price cuts by its Japanese clients in November last year and higher commission expenses, Daiwa said.
For the whole of last year, St Shine reported gross margin of 42.68 percent and operating margin of 34.81 percent, compared with 36.91 percent and 28.43 percent respectively a year earlier.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
RSS