Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), which assembles Apple Inc’s iPhones and iPads, yesterday reported record-high revenue of NT$1.49 trillion (US$46.66 billion) for last quarter, up 12.87 percent from NT$1.32 trillion in the same quarter of the previous year and 57.74 percent from the previous quarter’s NT$950.49 billion.
The company’s consolidated revenue for the whole of last year totaled a new record of NT$4.21 trillion, up 6.53 percent from NT$3.95 trillion in 2013.
Hon Hai had expanded capacities to cope with the launch of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in late last year. UBS on Wednesday projected that Apple sold a total of 69.3 million iPhones in the October-to-December quarter, higher than market consensus estimate of 65.5 million units.
Hon Hai’s core electronics manufacturing service (EMS) business, which accounted for about 50 percent of the company’s revenue last year, is expected to remain its main revenue growth driver this year and next year, Daiwa Capital Markets analyst Kylie Huang (黃奎毓) said in a recent note, citing Hon Hai’s solid industry position.
The company has reportedly secured between 70 and 80 percent of orders for Apple’s iPhone and iPad.
However, Hon Hai is set to see extra income accrued on the “big data cycle” in the coming years, given the firm’s broad exposure to data access, processing, transmission and storage, Huang said.
“As a major EMS partner for server and storage providers, Hon Hai should be well positioned to capture the opportunities here in 2015,” she wrote in the Jan. 2 note.
Another assembler of Apple devices, Pegatron Corp (和碩), yesterday also released its latest sales data, showing that quarterly sales reached NT$352.56 billion last quarter; increases of 32.53 percent year-on-year and 48.42 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Last year, Pegatron’s consolidated revenue totaled NT$1.01 trillion, up 7.32 percent from NT$949.75 billion in 2013.
Yuanta Securities and Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said Pegatron’s fourth-quarter sales were 6 percent higher than the market’s expectations, thanks to the firm’s increasing orders from Apple.
“We think that Pegatron assembled 40 percent of Apple’s iPhone 6 orders last month, which boosted the firm’s business last quarter,” a Yuanta analyst who declined to be named said by telephone.
In a note issued last week, Citigroup Global Markets said Pegatron would be the major beneficiary of Apple’s diversification this year. The brokerage is also positive on the Taiwanese firm’s margin outlook for this year, as Pegatron’s “broader product portfolio” could secure better growth opportunities going forward.
“The company, in our view, will continue to outgrow its peers in 2015 and 2016,” Citigroup analyst William Yang (楊維倫) wrote in a Jan. 2 note.
“We attribute the growth to Pegatron’s market share gain from assembly of the 5.5-inch iPhone in 2015 and the company’s ongoing production efficiency enhancements. Furthermore, Pegatron’s vertical integration to supply metal casings for the next iPhone through its subsidiary is another positive factor,” Yang wrote.
Meanwhile, contract notebook computer maker Wistron Corp (緯創) yesterday reported revenue of NT$60.4 billion for last quarter, up 21.9 percent year-on-year and 12.05 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Wistron attributed the better-than-usual performance to an increase of low-priced notebooks shipped last month, which boosted monthly and quarterly sales.
“Thanks to the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, some of our clients requested that we ship more low-priced products in advance, making notebook shipments last month more than those made in the previous month,” Wistron investor relations officer Joyce Chou (周文玲) said by telephone.
Last quarter, Wistron shipped 5.8 million notebooks, similar to the previous quarter’s level, bringing the company’s annual shipments of notebooks to 21.1 million units, Chou said.
Total shipments reached the company’s annual target of 20 million units, she said, although that remained 12.44 percent lower than the previous year’s 24.1 million units.
Chou said the decline was expected, as the company plans to gradually lower the sales contribution from notebooks to less than 50 percent of total.
As for its smart device segment, Wistron shipped 4.9 million tablets and handheld devices last quarter, up 16.66 percent from the previous quarter. However, total smart device shipments of 15.7 million units for last year was 41.08 percent down on the previous year’s 26.65 million, she said.
“Overall, tablet shipments were relatively weak last year, but handheld device shipments remained good, especially in the second half of last year,” Chou said.
For the whole of last year, Wistron’s revenue totaled NT$591.98 billion, down 5.15 percent from the previous year.
Chief financial officer Henry Lin (林進財) said the company’s business this year would be driven by its smart device segment, aiming for total shipments of 25 million units, up 67 percent from last year.
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