Acer Inc (宏碁) shares soared yesterday, outperforming the broader market, after the company posted a profit in the first three months of the year after reporting a loss in the fourth quarter last year, dealers said.
The shares opened flat, but buying emerged mid-morning and continued until the end of the session, dealers said.
“Investors simply seized the latest earnings report by Acer as a reason to hunt for a bargain,” Xincheng International Investment Consultant (信誠環球投顧) analyst Chang Chih-cheng (張志誠) said. “When the broader market fell into consolidation mode after breaching 10,000 points, investors began seeking out individual stocks such as Acer that had positive leads.”
Acer shares rose 2.40 percent to close at NT$14.95, with 22.72 million shares changing hands on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The TAIEX closed down 0.15 percent at 9,986.82 after closing above the 10,000-point mark for the first time in 17 years the previous day.
On Thursday, Acer posted a NT$63 million (US$2.09 million) first-quarter net profit, or earnings per share of NT$0.02, compared with a loss per share of NT$1.13 the previous quarter.
First-quarter operating profit was NT$456 million, up NT$323 million from the previous quarter, on the back of a product portfolio adjustment and cost-cutting measures, Acer said.
However, a 6 percent appreciation in the value of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback in the first quarter cost the company about NT$522 million in foreign-exchange losses, which put its pre-tax loss at NT$57 million, Acer said.
However, after a tax refund of NT$1.2 billion, Acer’s bottom line improved and it was able to report an after-tax profit, the company said.
“As Acer’s book value per share has reached about NT$19, the bargain hunting is likely to continue,” Chang said, forecasting that the shares would challenge the nearest technical resistance point of NT$16 in the short term.
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