Largan Precision Industry Co (大立光), which supplies camera lenses for Apple Inc’s iPhone, yesterday reported its lowest monthly sales in nine months due to soft customer demand.
Sales plunged 30.84 percent year-on-year and 30.03 percent month-on-month to NT$3.97 billion (US$119.33 million) last month.
This is the first time since June 2012 that Largan has posted an annual decline in monthly sales, according to its filings with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The monthly sales brought the firm’s quarterly sales to NT$15.43 billion, lower than an analysts’ consensus of NT$16.71 billion.
That represented an annual drop of 8 percent from NT$16.83 billion and a 4.04 percent quarterly decline from NT$16.08 billion recorded in the previous quarter.
The smartphone lens supplier said the sales figure was in line with its expectations, given that demand from most of Largan’s clients has softened as the industry has entered a seasonally slow period.
This month’s revenue is expected to decline from last month due to ongoing slow seasonal demand, a Largan investor relations official was quoted as saying by the Central News Agency.
“Largan’s performance last month was worse than our expectations. This suggested that Apple’s iPhone 6S sales are weaker than expected and the US company is trimming its orders from suppliers,” a SinoPac Securities Investment Service Co (永豐投顧) analyst said by telephone.
As revenue from sales to Apple account for more than 60 percent of Largan’s total sales, the Taiwanese firm’s sales results might reflect to a certain degree the sales performance of the iPhone, the analyst said.
Many lens component suppliers have trimmed their shipment forecasts for this quarter due to poor sales of the new iPhone models, the analyst added.
The analyst said she forecasts Largan’s shares will drop today at least 5 percent from yesterday because of the weak monthly results.
The firm’s revenue totaled NT$55.86 billion last year, an increase of 21.96 percent from the previous year’s NT$45.81 billion.
Separately, Catcher Technology Co (可成科技), the main metal casing supplier for Apple’s iPhone models, yesterday also reported a double-digit monthly decline for last month.
Catcher’s sales last month totaled NT$6.91 billion, an increase of 14.38 percent from a year earlier, but a 7.14 percent drop from November’s NT$8.34 billion.
This is the firm’s first monthly decline in six months.
When asked if the monthly decline indicated that the industry had entered a slow season, Catcher avoided the question, saying investors should focus on its annual growth performance.
“It is more meaningful to observe sales records on an annual basis rather than on a monthly basis,” Catcher spokesman James Wu (巫俊毅) said by telephone.
The metal casing supplier’s quarterly revenue totaled NT$23.47 billion last quarter, a jump of 38 percent from a year earlier and 9.7 percent from the previous quarter.
The company is to host a teleconference this afternoon to offer a review of its performance last year, a rare move by the company, as it has not completed quarterly earnings calculations for last quarter yet.
“There is too much noise in the market. We think we should offer a clear picture regarding the supply chain situation to investors,” Wu said, adding that the firm plans to host an earnings teleconference later this quarter.
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