Electronic components supplier Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday reported weaker-than-expected earnings per share (EPS) of NT$1.51 for last year’s October-to-December quarter due to declining sales and slowing gross margin improvement.
However, last year’s total EPS was the highest in the company’s history at NT$6.36, compared with NT$6.19 the previous year, as gross margin hit a record high of 22 percent despite a retreat in annual sales.
As a result, the company’s board of directors approved a plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.5 per share for the fourth quarter of last year, the company said.
Photo: Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
Including a cash dividend of NT$2 per share it distributed for the first half of last year, Lite-On’s total cash dividends for last year would reach NT$4.5 per share with a 70.75 percent payout ratio if the company receives a green light from shareholders at its annual general meeting on May 27, it said.
This quarter, the company’s sales would drop sequentially due to clients’ inventory adjustments dragging down its information technology and consumer electronics business, Lite-On president Anson Chiu (邱森彬) said at the conference.
The information technology and consumer electronics segment contributed 46 percent of the company’s sales of NT$36.91 billion (US$1.17 billion) last quarter, ahead of the cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) of things segment’s 35 percent and the optoelectronics segment’s 19 percent, the document showed.
The company expects business to resume growth from the second quarter, driven by contributions from sales of opto-semiconductors, automotive electronics and power supplies for AI servers, Chiu said.
Lite-On is targeted to achieve double-digit percentage growth in annual sales for the next three years beginning this year, he added.
The company is paying growing attention to AI applications with larger exposure to server power solutions, keyboards and handset opto-semiconductors this year, Chiu said.
Contributions from those AI-related products are expected to account for 7 to 8 percent of the company’s sales this year and reach double-digit figures next year, compared with nearly 5 percent last year, he said.
The company’s reported earnings showed it posted a fourth-quarter net profit of NT$3.46 billion, down 24 percent from the previous quarter and also down 10 percent from the previous year, as sales in the quarter decreased 8 percent sequentially and 14 percent annually to NT$36.91 billion.
Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) had expected the company to post fourth-quarter sales of NT$40.92 billion, with net profit of NT$4.38 billion, or EPS of NT$1.91.
That brought last year’s total net profit to NT$14.57 billion, up 3 percent from 2022, while full-year sales fell 14 percent annually to NT$148.33 billion, Lite-On said.
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