Taiwan Semi Reports Early, Above Expectations
By K.C. Swanson
TheStreet.com Staff Reporter
4/27/2004 12:33 PM EDT
Click here for more stories by K.C. Swanson
Updated from 11:35 a.m. EDT
Leading global foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM:NYSE - commentary - research), which accidentally released its results three days ahead of schedule Tuesday morning, beat Wall Street earnings expectations by 2 cents.
However, TSM shares were recently down 21 cents, or 1.9%, to $10.73.
The company's March-quarter sales jumped 46.2% from last year's levels to $1.72 billion, about in line with expectations for $1.75 billion. Sales were down only 0.5% from the prior quarter.
Net income totaled $561 million, or 14 cents a share, 2 cents ahead of expectations.
Taiwan Semi explained that part of its financial statement had been unintentionally released in Taiwan several days ahead of schedule, so the company decided to release its full report this morning.
The company will reportedly give June-quarter guidance at its originally scheduled conference call on Friday. The Wall Street consensus estimate stands at sales of $1.92 billion with earnings of 14 cents.
"Profitability has been up pretty strongly and that's clearly a positive," said Bill Ong, an analyst at American Technology Research. He wasn't surprised with the results, since his own research and comments from TSM suggest the company has been drawing on 95% to 100% of the capacity in its wafer fabrication plants.
Taiwan Semi, which manufactures chips used in everything from cell phones to graphics, has lately seen broad-based demand across the semiconductor market. In light of relatively strong visibility, Ong said he expects Taiwan Semi to give "a pretty upbeat outlook over the next couple of quarters." (His firm doesn't do investment banking.)
It's not clear how that will translate into the share price, which is up only about 7% year to date. Despite positive fundamental trends in its business, TSM's stock has been constrained by macro events such as political uncertainty surrounding the presidential election in Taiwan and a flurry of publicity over the public offering of Chinese rival Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMI:NYSE - commentary - research).
On Monday, SMI delivered a solid earnings report, announcing that it swung to a quarterly profit compared to a loss in the same quarter a year ago. It also offered a fat upside surprise on gross margin, which jumped to 32% from 21% in the prior quarter, helped by a spike in average selling prices and a fab utilization rate of 99%.
SMI shares were recently up 1 cent, or 0.07%, to $13.46. |
