Yageo Corp’s (國巨) share price yesterday reached NT$1,000 for the first time in the company’s 31-year history, with investors buoyed by the rosy business outlook for the nation’s top passive component supplier.
Yageo became a member of the exclusive NT$1,000 club on the local stock market, joining Apple Inc camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光).
Largan shares yesterday closed 2.73 percent lower at NT$4,090 in Taipei trading.
Yageo shares surged 9.53 percent, as the company’s market value ballooned to NT$350.6 billion (US$11.77 billion) from NT$124.25 billion on Jan. 2.
The shares have risen 282 percent since the beginning of this year, outperforming the TAIEX’s 1.53 percent increase during the same period.
The rally came after Yageo reported a net profit of NT$2.61 billion for last month amid persistent demand for passive components.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$7.43.
In just a month, Yageo has earned about 63 percent of the NT$4.26 billion, or earnings per share of NT$12.15, the company made during the whole of last quarter, boding well for the company’s earnings this quarter and the rest of the year.
Yageo last month said that the market uptrend would extend into the rest of this year and next, fueled primarily by increasing demand for high-margin products used in electric cars, autonomous vehicles, industrial devices, premium smartphones and new applications, such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence devices.
Average selling prices have been on the rise due to a supply crunch, the firm said.
In his annual report to the company’s shareholders, Yageo chairman Pierre Chen (陳泰銘) said that the company would make every effort to grow earnings and strengthen its global competitiveness, including enhancing its technological capabilities and optimizing its product portfolio.
Yageo aims to increase revenue contribution from higher-margin passive components for electric cars and industrial devices, he said.
Yageo would take appropriate measures to hedge against foreign-exchange-rate volatility, which is considered one of the uncertainties the company is facing this year, the report said.
Global trade disputes, spreading trade protectionism and price competition are also challenges Yageo has to overcome this year, Chen said.
Yageo had a 34 percent share of the global chip resistor market last year, while seizing 13 percent of the multilayer ceramic capacitor market.
The company is scheduled to hold an annual shareholders’ meeting on June 5 to vote on the management’s proposal to distribute a dividend of NT$15 per common share from its earnings per share of NT$15.64 last year and NT$0.64 per share from its capital surplus.
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