Shoemaker Fulgent Sun Group (鈺齊國際) yesterday said its board has proposed a cash dividend of NT$4.1, the highest level in the company’s history, thanks to record-breaking net profit last year.
The proposed dividend represents a yield of nearly 6.12 percent, compared with the firm’s closing stock price of NT$67 yesterday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
The company said it plans to hold its annual shareholders’ meeting on June 8 in Yunlin County to review the proposed payout.
Fulgent Sun said it aims to maintain a high cash dividend policy, with the proposed dividend translating into a payout ratio of 72.57 percent, based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$5.65.
The company posted net income of NT$803 million (US$27.4 million), or earnings per share of NT$5.23, for the whole of last year, a 14.3 percent increase from NT$702.26 million in 2016, which the company attributed to a better product portfolio and improved operating efficiency.
Revenue last year totaled NT$10.39 billion, up 14.4 percent year-on-year from NT$9.08 billion, with gross margin increasing from 18 percent to 19.8 percent, company data showed.
Operating margin rose from 7.7 percent to 10.9 percent, the data showed.
Fulgent Sun, which supplies outdoor footwear to more than 40 brand clients worldwide, said revenue last month jumped 34.2 percent to NT$667.5 million, from NT$497.52 million a year earlier.
However, sales in the first two months of this year amounted to NT$1.58 billion, a 7.1 percent decrease from NT$1.7 billion a year earlier, partly due to shipment delays in January, the company said.
The company said it is still positive about sales for the first half of the year, supported by continued capacity expansion since last year.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last