Pegatron Corp (和碩), one of Apple Inc’s iPhone assemblers, yesterday reported that net profit last quarter soared 46.33 percent from the previous quarter, reflecting rising sales of computing products, consumer electronics and communications devices during the industry’s peak season.
Net profit in the July-to-September period totaled NT$4.58 billion (US$141.66 million), compared with NT$3.13 billion in the previous three months, the electronics manufacturer said in a document released following the company’s earnings conference.
Third-quarter revenue was NT$315.77 billion, up 12.46 percent from NT$281.71 billion in the second quarter and higher than analysts’ estimates of NT$310 billion, while gross margin improved 0.1 percentage points to 3.85 percent, lower than analysts’ forecast of 4 percent.
Photo: Reuters
Last quarter’s net profit translated into earnings per share of NT$1.72, the highest this year and also higher than the market consensus of NT$1.4.
However, the company’s top-line and bottom-line results last quarter remained lower than the same period last year — with revenue down 10.5 percent and net profit falling 13 percent — due to still softening end-market demand for computing products and consumer electronics amid a slowdown in the global economy, the company said.
Apart from handsets, Pegatron manufactures notebook and desktop computers, wearable devices and game consoles, with major clients including Apple, Sony Corp, Microsoft Corp and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩).
Last quarter, communications devices accounted for 58 percent of the company's revenue, followed by consumer electronics at 20 percent and computing products at 11 percent, it said.
To improve its product mix with high-margin goods, the company has in the past few years developed its automotive electronics business with products such as electronic control units, center consoles, in-vehicle entertainment devices and advanced driver-assistance systems.
Even though Pegatron has cut into the supply chains of several Japanese and US electric vehicle makers, including Tesla Inc, automotive electronics’ contribution to the company’s overall revenue still lags far behind computing products, consumer electronics and communications devices, company data showed.
The company has also increased exposure to the server business and plans to make inroads into the artificial intelligence server business next year, Pegatron said.
The company said it would work with subsidiary ASRock Inc (華擎) on server product launches, with shipments mainly to US computing power services suppliers, adding that it would continue sampling out products to the four major US cloud service providers.
In the first three quarters of this year, Pegatron’s net profit totaled NT$10.72 billion, down 6.7 percent year-on-year, or earnings per share of NT$4.02. Revenue in the first three quarters decreased 4.76 percent to NT$914.61 billion and gross margin fell 0.77 percentage points to 3.61 percent.
For this quarter, demand for computing products and consumer electronics is expected to slow, while sales of communications devices would rise due to new product launches, the company said.
Overall, revenue this quarter would be this year’s peak driven by strong handset shipments in the holiday season, it said.
Next year, demand for consumer electronics and PCs is likely to slow down in the first half of the year and pick up in the second half, the company said.
Automotive electronics’ revenue is expected to increase by double-digit percentage points next year and contribute more than 10 percent to the company’s overall revenue in 2025, it said.
To provide clients with more choices, the company has expanded its overseas operations.
Production capacity in China, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Czech Republic and elsewhere abroad accounts for about 15 percent of the company’s total capacity, it said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
INFLATION CONSIDERATION: The BOJ governor said that it would ‘keep making appropriate decisions’ and would adjust depending on the economy and prices The Bank of Japan (BOJ) yesterday raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest in 30 years and said more increases are in the pipeline if conditions allow, in a sign of growing conviction that it can attain the stable inflation target it has pursued for more than a decade. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s policy board increased the rate by 0.2 percentage points to 0.75 percent, in a unanimous decision, the bank said in a statement. The central bank cited the rising likelihood of its economic outlook being realized. The rate change was expected by all 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The
RSS