LCD monitor maker Qisda Corp (佳世達) yesterday reported that net profit in the first quarter reached the highest in about 13 years, thanks to strong demand for monitors and industrial devices amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Net profit increased to NT$2.61 billion (US$93.23 million) from NT$233 million last year and from NT$2.28 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, the company said.
Earnings per share rose to NT$1.07, up from NT$0.12 last year and NT$0.9 in the fourth quarter, while gross margin increased to 14.7 percent, compared with 13.4 percent last year and 14.3 percent in the fourth quarter.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
The company also attributed last quarter’s performance to a long-standing effort to scale up its revenue base of high-value-added products, including networking devices, medical equipment and business solutions.
Its strong quarterly performance gave the company greater confidence regarding its business prospects for this year, as it seeks to leverage the strengths of its businesses and industry partners in a “grand alliance” to tackle shortages of key components.
“As we said in March, this year will be a good year for Qisda, considering the faster pace of growth in revenue and net profit,” chairman Peter Chen (陳其宏) told investors in a virtual conference yesterday.
“Orders received have significantly exceeded what we can supply,” Chen said. “Prices for all kinds of raw materials have been on the rise. The situation has not improved much.”
As the supply of key components, such as chips and flat panels, remains tight, Qisda said that revenue, as well as shipments of monitors and projectors, could increase at a slower-than-expected rate.
The shortage of shipping containers might continue to slow the company’s growth, it said.
Qisda is cautiously optimistic about this quarter’s revenue and bottom line, but it remains conservative about the second half of the year, as higher inflation and rising electronics prices could dampen consumer demand, Chen said.
Overall, revenue this quarter is expected to increase quarter-on-quarter by a double-digit percentage, Qisda chief financial officer Jasmin Hung (洪秋金) said.
Last quarter, LCD monitors and projectors — the company’s biggest revenue sources — together accounted for 60 percent of the company’s revenue of NT$50.9 billion, while high-value-added products, or high-margin products, made up 33 percent.
The company said that high-value-added products are expected to make up half of its total revenue by the end of this year, ahead of its original estimate of next year.
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