- Fourth Quarter 2014 Performance Outperforms Company Guidance
TAINAN, Taiwan, Jan. 14, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Himax Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: HIMX ) ("Himax" or "Company"), a leading supplier and fabless manufacturer of display drivers and other semiconductor products, today pre-announced its fourth quarter 2014 revenues, gross margin and EPS.
Himax has chosen to pre-announce its fourth quarter 2014 financial results to address recent market confusion caused by negative rumors that Himax might miss its 4Q'14 guidance. We would like to reiterate that, as a principle, the Company only pre-announces financial results when it misses or substantially beats its guidance.
The Q4, 2014 revenues, gross margin and EPS are set out below. The original guidance figures that we gave on investor conference call on November 13 are also provided for easy comparison.
- Net Revenues: $227.2 million, an increase of 2.2% quarter over quarter versus Company guidance of flat to slightly up.
- Gross Margin: 24.7%, up 0.2% from the previous quarter, versus Company guidance of down within 1%.
- GAAP EPS: 8.7 – 9.2 cents per diluted ADS versus the Company's guided range of 7.5 to 9.2 cents.
The new EPS guidance has taken into account some $3.3 million (1.9 cents per ADS) in additional income tax charges caused by further NTD depreciation against the USD. From the date of the EPS guidance (November 10) to the year end, the NTD depreciated from 30.55 to 31.65 against the USD. If the NTD/USD rate had stayed at 30.55, our EPS would have been higher by 1.9 cents, far outperforming our original guidance.
On a side note, on top of solid core businesses, Himax is experiencing strong momentum in our LCOS and WLO operations. As noted previously, Himax continues to work closely with world leading customers and/or partners in the LCOS and WLO sectors.
The Company will provide its full financial report and also host a conference call with investors in early February.
About Himax Technologies, Inc.
Himax Technologies, Inc. (HIMX) is a fabless semiconductor solution provider dedicated to display imaging processing technologies. Himax is a worldwide market leader in display driver ICs and timing controllers used in TVs, laptops, monitors, mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, car navigation, and many other consumer electronics devices. Additionally, Himax designs and provides controllers for touch sensor displays, LCOS micro-displays used in palm-size projectors and head-mounted displays, LED driver ICs, power management ICs, scaler products for monitors and projectors, tailor-made video processing IC solutions and silicon IPs. The company also offers digital camera solutions, including CMOS image sensors and wafer level optics, which are used in a wide variety of applications such as mobile phone, tablet, laptop, TV, PC camera, automobile, security and medical devices. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Tainan, Taiwan, Himax currently employs over 1,700 people from three Taiwan-based offices in Tainan, Hsinchu and Taipei and country offices in China, Korea, Japan and the US. Himax has 2,434 patents granted and 875 patents pending approval worldwide as of September 30, 2014. Himax has retained its position as the leading display imaging processing semiconductor solution provider to consumer electronics brands worldwide.
Forward Looking Statements
Factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially include, but not limited to, general business and economic conditions and the state of the semiconductor industry; market acceptance and competitiveness of the driver and non-driver products developed by the Company; demand for end-use applications products; reliance on a small group of principal customers; the uncertainty of continued success in technological innovations; our ability to develop and protect our intellectual property; pricing pressures including declines in average selling prices; changes in customer order patterns; changes in estimated full-year effective tax rate; shortages in supply of key components; changes in environmental laws and regulations; exchange rate fluctuations; regulatory approvals for further investments in our subsidiaries; our ability to collect accounts receivable and manage inventory and other risks described from time to time in the Company's SEC filings, including those risks identified in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in its Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2013 filed with the SEC, as may be amended.
Company Contacts: Jackie Chang, CFO Himax Technologies, Inc. Tel: 886-2-2370-3999 Ext.22300 Or US Tel: +1-949-585-9838 Ext.252 Fax: 886-2-2314-0877 Email: www.himax.com.tw Nadiya Chen, Investor Relations Himax Technologies, Inc. Tel: 886-2-2370-3999 Ext.22513 Fax: 886-2-2314-0877 Email: www.himax.com.tw Investor Relations- US Representative Scott Powell, Managing Director PCG Advisory Group, LLC Tel: +1-646-780-8850 Email: www.pcgadvisory.com
