While remaining bearish on the smartphone supply chain, Morgan Stanley last week said it was upbeat about the outlook for the optical fingerprint sensor industry next year due to technology improvements and more reasonable prices.
Among those focusing on fingerprint integrated circuits (ICs) in the region, MediaTek Inc’s (聯發科) Shenzhen-based subsidiary Goodix Technology Inc (匯頂) and Egis Technology Inc (神盾) in the Neihu Technology Park in Taipei are expected to see earnings double next year, the US investment bank said in a report on Tuesday.
“We believe the adoption rate of optical underglass fingerprint [technology] in Android [smartphones] will increase to 10 to 15 percent in 2019 (versus our prior expectation of 6 to 7 percent) from 3 percent in 2018, or shipments of about 150 million units in 2019,” Morgan Stanley analysts led by Daniel Yen (顏志天) said in the report.
“Given the higher average selling price (more than four times that of capacitive fingerprint sensors), we believe the total addressable market for fingerprint ICs could nearly double in 2019,” the analysts said.
The increasing demand for all-screen smartphones worldwide has prompted more smartphone makers to add fingerprint recognition to their mobile devices.
In a report in August, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said the trend toward optical underglass fingerprint sensors from this year to next year would benefit optical fingerprint’s IC suppliers such as Goodix, Egis, Silead Inc (思立微), Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠) and FocalTech Systems Co Ltd (敦泰).
Morgan Stanley analysts said that market dynamics saw improvement this year and the optical fingerprint market could see a significant pickup next year, given the more mature technology, lower adoption of 3D sensing by Chinese smartphone makers, comparatively lower costs for underglass solutions and Samsung Electronics Co’s adoption in its flagship model.
Morgan Stanley reiterated its “overweight” rating for Goodix and raised its 12-month target price on the stock from 90 yuan to 94 yuan.
“We believe Goodix remains the leading player in the fingerprint IC industry and also has the fastest roadmap for optical fingerprint,” the analysts said.
The US investment bank upgraded Egis to “overweight” from “equal-weight” and raised its target price from NT$145 to NT$235, citing company orders secured for Samsung’s Galaxy A series and possible orders for Samsung’s Note 10 in the second half of next year.
Egis shares closed up 2.31 percent on Saturday at NT$221 in Taipei trading, while Goodix fell 1.44 percent to 77.89 yuan in Shanghai on Friday.
NEW MARKET: The partnership opens up India to the Dutch company, which already has a strong hold in the semiconductor market of South Korea, Taiwan and China ASML Holding NV entered into a partnership agreement with Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd aimed at ramping up India’s goal to develop domestic chip-manufacturing capabilities. The Dutch company’s technology would help power Tata Electronics’ planned 300 millimeter (mm) semiconductor foundry in Gujarat, according to a joint statement from the two companies on Saturday. The signing of a memorandum of understanding coincides with a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Netherlands, which is looking to deepen bilateral relations with New Delhi. ASML, whose top customers include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co, makes lithography machines that can print
Tokyo Electron's Taiwan unit today said in a written response that it respects the judicial process, takes the court ruling seriously and would not appeal in the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) trade secrets case. Last month, a court fined the Taiwan unit of Japan's Tokyo Electron NT$150 million (US$4.74 million) in a case involving trade secrets related to TSMC's sensitive chip technology.
ROUGH RECORDS: Bonds in Japan, as well is in New Zealand, Australia and the US, are seeing the effects of a nervy market as stock exchanges across Asia edge down A deepening slump in Japanese government bonds added fuel to the selloff in global debt markets as rising oil prices stoked inflation fears and pushed yields to multi-decade highs. Japan’s 30-year yield yesterday surged as much as 20 basis points to the highest level since the tenor’s debut in 1999, before paring some of the move. Shorter-maturity Japanese debt was also under pressure, underscored by weak demand at a sale of five-year notes that offered a record-high coupon of 2 percent. Concerns over inflation and government spending rippling through markets including the US, Australia and New Zealand are being amplified in Japan,
Wall Street is licking its chops over an unprecedented slate of massive initial public offerings (IPOs) set to arrive in the coming months, beginning with Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) next month. That is expected to be followed by artificial intelligence (AI) rivals OpenAI and Anthropic PBC. The trio of mega listings, each eyeing valuations around US$1 trillion or more, constitutes a heady period of elevated risk and reward. SpaceX is targeting an IPO that would raise up to US$80 billion — about double the funds generated from all IPOs last year. OpenAI and Anthropic are eyeing IPOs raising US$60 billion. “We’re
RSS