Himax Technologies, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:HIMX) shares were up 7.22% to $8.02 and an additional 1.75% in after-hours trading when the company released its preliminary unaudited financial earnings figures for Q2 2016. The company has a market cap of $1.25 billion at 343.82 million shares outstanding.
In its financial results for the period ending June 30, 2016, Himax Technologies reported revenues of $201.1 million, an increase of 11.5% from the previous quarter and an increase of 18.8% year-over-year. These gains were attributed to strong sales in the company’s small and medium-sized driver business. In addition, smartphone driver integrated circuits experienced phenomenal growth due to Chinese end-brand customers gaining share from new model launches.
Gross margin stood at 26% which is roughly in line with the management’s guidance estimates. This reflected a reduction of 10 basis points from the previous period and an increase of 230 basis points from the same quarter a year ago. Lastly, diluted earnings per share was at 11.5 cents, higher than the company’s guidance of 8.5 to 10.5 cents, reflecting a 51.3% increase from the earlier quarter and a 125.5% gain from the same period last year.
The company is set to make its official earnings call in August, although Himax Technologies shares could bank on these positive results until then. A number of analysts have already upgraded their outlook for the stock from “neutral” to “buy” based on these figures and positive expectations for the company moving forward. Nomura analyst Donnie Teng highlighted the company’s involvement in augmented reality and virtual reality technologies, as well as the firm’s exposure to Microsoft’s Hololens technology as factors supporting the upgrade.
Himax Technologies is a fabless semiconductor solution provider that is engaged in display driver integrated circuits and timing controllers used in televisions, laptops, monitors, mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, car navigation and other consumer electronics devices. Shares have been trading in a 52-week range of $5.65 to $12.00.
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