Shares of Taiwan-based smartphone camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光), a supplier to Apple Inc, edged slightly lower yesterday, despite posting better-than-expected sales for last month a day earlier, dealers said.
The stock rallied early in the session after Largan said its revenue would continue to grow this month, but because of its high valuation after surging 27 percent since the beginning of last month, profit taking took over later in the session, they said.
Largan shares fell 0.17 percent to close at NT$2,890 off an early high of NT$2,945, with 750,000 shares changing hands on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The exchange’s weighted index rose 0.06 percent to 8,597.11.
The stock steamed ahead soon after the market opened, buoyed by its sales report for last month, dealers said.
In a statement released on Sunday, Largan reported consolidated sales of NT$3.36 billion (US$103.7 million) for last month, up 8 percent from a month earlier and the third consecutive month-on-month increase.
Last month’s figure also beat an earlier estimate made by the company, which said revenue last month would be little changed from April.
Largan said in the statement that it expects sales to continue to grow this month, leading investors to suggest that Apple has begun to place orders for production of the next generation of iPhones expected to be unveiled in September.
Some foreign brokerages believe the worst is over for Largan now that Apple has completed inventory adjustments caused by weaker-than-expected iPhone sales, reflected in Largan’s three consecutive months of sales growth.
Two upbeat foreign brokerages have issued a target price of NT$3,200 on Largan shares.
“The stock suffered some profit taking today, as investors locked in gains posted in recent sessions,” Mega International Investment Services Corp analyst Alex Huang said.
GEOPOLITICAL ISSUES? The economics ministry said that political factors should not affect supply chains linking global satellite firms and Taiwanese manufacturers Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) asked Taiwanese suppliers to transfer manufacturing out of Taiwan, leading to some relocating portions of their supply chain, according to sources employed by and close to the equipment makers and corporate documents. A source at a company that is one of the numerous subcontractors that provide components for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Internet products said that SpaceX asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan because of geopolitical risks, pushing at least one to move production to Vietnam. A second source who collaborates with Taiwanese satellite component makers in the nation said that suppliers were directly
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
Top Taiwanese officials yesterday moved to ease concern about the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, making a case that the technology restrictions promised by the former US president against China would outweigh the risks to the island. The prospect of Trump’s victory in this week’s election is a worry for Taipei given the Republican nominee in the past cast doubt over the US commitment to defend it from Beijing. But other policies championed by Trump toward China hold some appeal for Taiwan. National Development Council Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) described the proposed technology curbs as potentially having
EXPORT CONTROLS: US lawmakers have grown more concerned that the US Department of Commerce might not be aggressively enforcing its chip restrictions The US on Friday said it imposed a US$500,000 penalty on New York-based GlobalFoundries Inc, the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, for shipping chips without authorization to an affiliate of blacklisted Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯). The US Department of Commerce in a statement said GlobalFoundries sent 74 shipments worth US$17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor Corp (盛合晶微半導體), an affiliate of SMIC, without seeking a license. Both SMIC and SJ Semiconductor were added to the department’s trade restriction Entity List in 2020 over SMIC’s alleged ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. SMIC has denied wrongdoing. Exports to firms on the list