Passive components maker Yageo Corp (國巨) yesterday reported strong financial results for last year, prompting it to propose its largest-ever cash dividend, but said that challenges remain.
Despite headwinds last quarter, the company saw consolidated sales, gross margin, operating income, net profit and earnings per share for the year reach record highs.
Net profit was NT$33.84 billion (US$1.1 billion) with earnings per share of NT$80.3, compared with NT$15.64 the previous year, while gross margin increased by 30.8 percentage points to 63.3 percent, the company said.
Operating income was NT$36.91 billion and operating margin rose 24.3 percentage points to 47.8 percent, with revenue jumping 139.2 percent to NT$77.16 billion, it said.
The company said its board of directors had proposed a dividend distribution of NT$45 per common share, including NT$44.3 per share from earnings and NT$0.7 per share from capital surplus.
The proposed dividend, if approved by shareholders on June 5, is higher than the NT$16.85 per share distributed a year earlier and offers a payout ratio of 56.04 percent.
It suggests a dividend yield of 13.27 percent on yesterday’s closing price of NT$339.
The company encountered weak demand from customers in the greater China region in the October-to-December quarter due to low-season effects and the US-China trade dispute, with revenue declining 47.1 percent from the prior quarter to NT$16.22 billion.
“Despite uncertainty in the greater China market and a slowdown in the electronics supply chain while Chinese distributors digest inventory, the structural change of the passive-component industry is still in a positive direction,” Yageo said in a statement.
Yageo said it would continue to expand capacity to meet the supply gap caused by the withdrawal of capacity by major manufacturers, and to increase its market share.
It would also work to optimize its product mix with increasing capacity in high-end products — such as high-capacitance, high-voltage, micro precision components, and automotive and industrial resistors and capacitors — while continuing to enhance its international competitiveness and improving service for global customers by acquiring advanced technology and expanding its scale of operations, Yageo said.
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