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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: runes who wrote (6381)	7/7/2003 6:06:13 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

UPDATE - TSMC Q2 sales beat estimate, up 13 pct y/y Monday July 7, 5:57 am ET By Michael Kramer (Adds analyst comment) TAIPEI, July 7 (Reuters) - TSMC (Taiwan:2330.TW - News), the world's largest contract microchip maker, posted strong June revenues on Monday that helped second-quarter sales rise 13 percent from a year ago to beat the company's own aggressive forecasts. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) said it booked T$17.8 billion in sales for June, bringing revenue for the April-June quarter to T$49.9 billion (US$1.45 billion). Second-quarter revenue was also up about 27 percent from the first quarter, landing just ahead of optimistic company estimates that had surprised the market when announced in April. Market expectations are now much higher, with analysts predicting TSMC's strong streak to last into the third quarter. "I think the story for third quarter largely remains the same," said ING Securities analyst Chris Hsieh. "DVD, wireless LAN, graphics chips and mobile handsets -- those are the main drivers," Hsieh said. TSMC announced June revenues after close of trade on Monday. Its Taiwan-listed shares jumped the seven percent daily trading limit to end at T$61.00, outperforming the benchmark TAIEX (Taiwan:^TWII - News) share index, which rose 3.31 percent. While TSMC shares have soared almost 45 percent since a mid-February low as investors put the U.S. war with Iraq behind them, Hsieh said the issue's price-to-book value of 3 to 3.5 times is still about half of its 1998-2002 average of 6.42 times, suggesting the firm was far from overvalued. Hsieh rates TSMC as a "buy". While demand for microchips is slowly recovering from a two-year slump as the global economy improves, TSMC has gained extra momentum from high-tech new products from key clients. Its biggest customer, U.S. graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp (NasdaqNM:NVDA - News), launched a high-performance chip this quarter that takes advantage of TSMC's most advanced -- and most expensive -- production processes. Other customers, like mobile phone chip makers Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN - News) and Motorola Inc (NYSE:MOT - News), are also shipping semiconductors for next-generation handsets that snap pictures and transfer Internet data at high speeds. Analysts say TSMC's larger size and deeper pocket for R&D budgets have also helped it beat opponents to new generations of technology. TSMC's net income grew 71 percent quarter-on-quarter in the January-March period, compared with a 59.1 percent drop for arch rival United Microelectronics Corp (Taiwan:2303.TW - News). TSMC said its capacity utilisation rate rose to 86 percent in the April-June period from 67 percent in the first quarter, well ahead of its guidance to investors of "more than 80 percent". (US$1 = T$34.6)