Phison Electronics Corp (群聯電子) made a net profit of NT$4.32 billion (US$140.19 million) last year, but that was a drop of 26 percent from the previous year due to a massive plunge in memorychip prices, the company said yesterday.
Earnings per share came in at NT$21.91, less than the NT$29.23 a year earlier, while gross margin stood at about 20 percent, compared with the 27 percent recorded in 2017, said the firm, which supplies NAND flash memory controllers and modules.
“Phison saw its shipments grow about 60 percent year-over-year last year in terms of ‘memory bit,’ helping it gain some market share and buck the industry’s downtrend,” the company said in a statement.
By unit, overall shipments of NAND flash memory controllers grew 20 percent annually, with those of advanced NAND flash memory controllers for solid-state drives (SSDs) jumping 50 percent from the year before, Phison said.
The prices of NAND flash memory chips last year nosedived between 60 and 70 percent from 2017, due to sluggish smartphone demand and supply gluts, it said.
Last year’s performance showed that the firm had made early progress in expanding its reach to high-end NAND flash storage used in artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, automotive electronics and servers, it said.
Phison chairman Pua Khein-seng (潘健成) said there was a chance the supply-demand imbalance would improve next quarter, as the world’s major NAND flash memorychip makers have reduced their capital spending to constrain supplies.
NAND flash memorychip prices might stabilize, or even rise slowly in the second quarter, Pua said.
The company’s clients have started replenishing their inventories, as they expect prices are unlikely to fall further, and that would help boost its revenue, he said.
Phison’s board of directors yesterday approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$13 per common share, representing a payout ratio of 59 percent.
The distribution implies a dividend yield of 4.86 percent based on the company’s closing price of NT$267.5.
In related news, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) yesterday forecast that NAND flash memory prices are likely to drop between 10 and 15 percent next quarter from this quarter, following a 20 percent drop this quarter due to severe oversupply.
The world’s major NAND flash memorychip makers cut capital spending by 10 percent annually last year, to little effect, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report.
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