Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world’s second-largest contract laptop maker, yesterday reported better-than-expected revenue for last month, but forecast lower notebook shipments this month.
Consolidated revenue reached NT$63.35 billion (US$2.18 billion), up 5.25 percent from NT$60.19 billion in October, the company said in a filing submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange after the market closed.
Last month’s figure was a 5.97 percent increase compared with NT$59.78 billion in the same period of last year.
In the first 11 months, accumulated revenue totaled NT$622 billion, down 2.74 percent from NT$639.5 billion a year earlier, the filing showed.
Compal attributed the results to an increase in notebook shipments, which expanded by about 7 percent to 3.8 million units last month from a month ago.
“Last month’s results were in line with our estimate, mainly because of strong notebook demand from our clients,” Compal spokesman Gary Lu (呂清雄) said by telephone yesterday.
Lu said cumulative notebook shipments in the past two months were about 7.3 million units.
The company forecast notebook shipments for this month would fall by 13.16 percent to about 3.3 million units from last month, and overall notebook shipments would increase by 5 percent this quarter to 11 million units from the third quarter, he added.
Arthur Liao (廖顯毅), an equity research analyst at Taipei-based Fubon Securities (富邦證券), yesterday said he was “shocked” by the 5.25 percent monthly increase in revenue, because sales in November under normal conditions are lower than those in October.
Liao attributed the growth to an increase in demand from notebook makers Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), Acer Inc (宏碁) and Dell Inc, and forecast sales for this month would grow as demand from Lenovo would grow significantly ahead of the Lunar New Year, which falls in February.
For next year, Fubon estimated Compal’s sales would grow by 5 percent from this year, driven mainly by notebooks, but maintained its target price on the stock at NT$16.
Contract laptop maker Inventec Corp (英業達) yesterday also posted improved sales for last month.
Inventec said sales were NT$29.56 billion for last month, up 3.36 percent compared to NT$28.6 billion for October and 15.74 percent higher compared to NT$25.54 in the same period of last year.
However, cumulative sales totaled NT$261.62 billion from January to last month, down 5.66 percent from NT$309.13 billion during the same period of last year.
Compal’s share closed up 0.74 percent at NT$20.45 yesterday, outperforming the broader market, which gained 0.25 percent, while Inventec stock was unchanged at NT$11.05.
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