Chicony Power Technology Co (群光電能), which makes a variety of computer peripherals, on Monday reported that earnings for last quarter declined from a quarter earlier due to higher operating expenses, and said that it expected the COVID-19 epidemic to affect its Chinese operations in the short term.
Net income fell 41.8 percent to NT$389 million (US$12.93 million), from NT$668 million in the previous quarter, while revenue declined 11.1 percent to NT$8.88 billion, the company said on its Web site.
Earnings per share were NT$1.02 last quarter, it said.
However, for last year as a whole, net income rose 67 percent annually to NT$1.72 billion and operating income increased 54.7 percent annually to NT$2.2 billion, with earnings per share rising from NT$2.72 to NT$4.51, Chicony said.
Revenue also increased 10 percent to NT$34.42 billion, from NT$31.29 billion a year earlier, while gross margin was 16.4 percent, an increase of 2.4 percentage points, and operating margin 6.4 percent, up 1.9 percentage points, the company said.
Chicony mainly focuses on manufacturing keyboards, switches, power supplies, smart and green solutions, camera modules and adapters for notebook computers.
The company operates four manufacturing sites in Dongguan, Chongqing, Wujiang and Nanchang in China and is expanding production capacity in Thailand.
In a conference call, Chicony said that it was utilizing factories in other places to fill the gap due to curtailed production in China and that it expected revenue to still grow steadily this year.
Local media cited Chicony president Peter Tseng (曾國華) as telling investors at an earnings conference that the New Taipei City-headquartered company hopes to increase factory production in China to 70 to 80 percent by the end of this month, up from 60 to 65 percent last month, which would help boost shipments above last month’s levels.
Revenue for this quarter would drop by 8 to 10 percent annually and gross margin would decline by 1 to 1.5 percentage points, the company said.
Chicony’s revenue might reach NT$6.59 billion this quarter, down 8.86 percent year-on-year and 25.83 percent quarter-on-quarter, Jih Sun Securities Investment Consulting Co (日盛投顧) said in a note yesterday.
Given the short-term effects of the epidemic, Jih Sun revised down its earnings per share forecast to NT$4.54 for this year, from a previous estimate of NT$5.18.
Chicony’s board of directors has approved plans to distribute a cash dividend of NT$3.2 per share, representing a payout ratio of 70.95 percent, and suggesting a dividend yield of 5.4 percent based on the share’s closing price of NT$59.3 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
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