Largan Precision Co (大立光), a leading smartphone camera lens supplier, on Friday said that it had bought back 672,000 of its own shares over the past two months, or 0.5 percent of its outstanding shares, for NT$1.4 billion (US$50.47 million).
The number of repurchased shares accounted for half of the shares that the company had planned to acquire on the open market to bolster its share price.
Largan shares on Friday closed 0.61 percent lower at NT$2,445 in Taipei trading, having dropped 23.47 percent since the beginning of this year due to weak revenue performance and a fall in profitability.
Photo: David Chang, EPA-EFE
During the buyback period, its stock price rose 21.33 percent, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
On Oct. 26, Largan began to execute the company’s first buyback scheme, aiming to repurchase up to 1.342 million shares — or 1 percent of its outstanding shares — at NT$2,025 to NT$3,300 per share.
Largan said in a regulatory filing on Friday that the average repurchase price was NT$2,084, which is the highest for a listed company in Taiwan.
Last week, the stock rallied 7.71 percent after two foreign brokerage firms raised their target price for Largan shares to NT$2,600 and NT$2,990 respectively, on expectations that the Apple Inc supplier would benefit from an industry trend of adopting more high-end lenses per smartphone, as well as rising demand for automotive optical components next year.
As a leading maker of optical lens modules, Largan also produces real-image viewfinders and other optoelectronic parts.
Largan signed a long-term agreement with a top Chinese smartphone brand, TF International Securities Group Co (天風國際證券) analyst Kuo Ming-chi (郭明錤) said in a report on Monday, adding that orders to the Chinese client are expected to increase shipments 20 percent annually, compared with a previous forecast of shipments falling 15 to 20 percent.
Upgrades to iPhone cameras over the next two years would boost Largan’s market share, revenue and profit, Kuo said, without providing further details
Largan posted net profit of NT$13.54 billion in the first three quarters of this year, down 23 percent annually, with earnings per share of NT$100.91.
The firm’s cumulative revenue for the first 11 months dropped 16.79 percent year-on-year to NT$42.46 billion, company data showed.
Separately, the Taichung-based company on Friday gained approval to invest NT$34.2 billion in a plant expansion at the Taichung Industrial Park (臺中工業區) under the government’s “Invest in Taiwan” initiative, the InvesTaiwan Service Center said in a statement.
Largan has since last year started construction of the plants and installed smart machinery at the industrial park, the center said, adding that the investment is expected to create 2,500 jobs.
The company has pledged to continue to expand application services for smart handheld devices and focus on high-end production technology in Taiwan, the center added.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
RSS