Himax Technologies Beats Estimates in Q3 and Offers Q4 Guidance, Analysts Review and Target

Himax Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: HIMX), is a fabless semiconductor company that provides display imaging processing technologies worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Driver IC and Non-Driver Products. It offers display driver integrated circuits (ICs) and timing controllers used in televisions (TVs), laptops, monitors, mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, car navigation, and other consumer electronics devices.

On November 8th, the company reported its Q3 financial data and offered guidance for Q4 2018.

 

Recent Events

November 08, 2018. Himax announced its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018. The Company’s third quarter 2018 revenues, gross margin and EPS all exceeded guidance as it previously announced on October 5th. The revenues increase in the quarter was attributed to greater-than-expected production outputs of the new foundries for both large display driver ICs and TDDI chips that allowed Himax to fulfill more customer orders. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/himax-technologies-inc-reports-third-110000615.html

 

October 24, 2018. – Himax and Kneron, a leading company in edge artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, today jointly announced a collaboration to accelerate the development and commercialization of a high precision and high-performance 3D sensing and AI-enabled security and surveillance solution. https://www.himax.com.tw/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Himax-Kneron-Joint-Annt.pdf

 

 

Products

Display Drivers – TVs, laptops, monitors, mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, car navigation, and many other consumer electronics devices.

Touch Panel Controller – HiTouch products for electronic devices employing touch panel screens of up to 13”, such as smartphones, mobile Internet devices and tablet PCs.

CMOS Image Sensor – Broad array of small pixel image sensors for different camera applications including mobile devices, notebook PC, automotive and surveillance.

Wafer Level Optics – Optical products manufactured using semiconductor process on wafers for camera lens in portable electronics.

Video and Display Technology Solutions – TFT-LCD television and monitor semiconductor solutions including 4K & 3D.

Other Display Related Semiconductor Solutions – Timing Controller, Operational Amplifier & IC are discrete semiconductors in large-sized TFT-LCD panels.

 

 

About

Himax Technologies, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, provides display imaging processing technologies worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Driver IC and Non-Driver Products. It offers display driver integrated circuits (ICs) and timing controllers used in televisions (TVs), laptops, monitors, mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, car navigation, and other consumer electronics devices. The company also designs and provides controllers for touch sensor displays; in-cell touch and display driver integration single-chip solutions; LED driver and power management ICs; scaler products for monitors and projectors; tailor-made video processing IC solutions; silicon IPs; and liquid crystal on silicon micro-displays for augmented reality (AR) devices and head-up displays for automotive industry. In addition, it offers digital camera solutions, including complementary metal oxide semiconductor image sensors and wafer level optics for AR devices, 3D sensing, and machine vision, which are used in various applications, such as mobile phone, tablet, laptop, TV, PC camera, automobile, security, medical devices, and Internet on Things. The company markets its display drivers and display-related products to panel manufacturers, agents or distributors, module manufacturers, and assembly houses; and non-driver products to camera module manufacturers, optical engine manufacturers, and television system manufacturers. Himax Technologies, Inc. has a collaboration with Kneron to develop and commercialize a 3D sensing and AI-enabled security and surveillance solution. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Tainan City, Taiwan.

 

 

Analysts

9 Wall Street analysts have issued ratings and price targets for Himax Technologies in the last 12 months. Their average twelve-month price target is $7.75, suggesting that the stock has a possible upside of 73.38%. The high price target for HIMX is $12.00 and the low-price target for HIMX is $6.00. There are currently 6 hold ratings and 3 buy ratings for the stock, resulting in a consensus rating of “Hold.”

Date                    Brokerage                        Action                 Rating                 Price Target

11/9/2018          Credit Suisse Group        Reiterated          Neutral               $7.00

11/8/2018          Robert W. Baird               Set Target           Outperform              $10.00 ➝ $7.00

10/1/2018          Roth Capital                     Upgrade             Neutral ➝ Buy  $7.00

9/25/2018          Lake Street Capital          Set Target           Buy                      $8.00

8/16/2018          Macquarie                       Downgrade        Neutral               $12.00 ➝ $6.00

8/9/2018            Cowen                               Set Target           Hold                    $7.00

3/9/2018            Nomura                            Downgrade        Hold                    $10.00 ➝ $8.00

3/9/2018            Northland Securities       Downgrade        Outperform ➝ Market Perform

Source: marketbeat.com

 

 

Financial review

Q3 2018

Q3 revenue increased 3.9% QoQ to $188.4M, exceeding guidance of around flat from the last quarter

Product sales: large driver ICs, 35.2% of revenue, up 9.4% QoQ; small and medium-sized driver ICs, 45.1% of revenue, down 4.8% QoQ; non-driver products, 19.7% of revenue, up 18.0% QoQ

Q3 IFRS gross margin was 23.4%, up 40 bps sequentially due to improved product mix and exceeding guidance of around 22.5%

Q3 IFRS earnings was $0.9M, or 0.5 cents per diluted ADS, higher than guidance of around -1.0 cent

Q3 Non-IFRS earnings was $4.5M, or 2.6 cents per diluted ADS, higher than guidance of around 1.5 cents

 

 

Q4 2018 Guidance

Revenue to be around Flat to up 5.0% Sequentially, Gross Margin to be around 24.2% to 25.2%, IFRS EPS to be around 1.5 to 3.6 Cents.

Expect 4Q18 TDDI revenue to double from 3Q18 due to ramping of new capacity to fulfill more customer orders from design-wins

Expect 4Q18 WLO shipment to increase significantly sequentially, the overall 2018 shipment will increase considerably year-over-year

3D sensing adoption remains low for the Android smartphone makers due to the prevailing high hardware cost, long development lead time required for integration and the lack of killer applications which is limited to phone unlock and online payment

Reacting to Android smartphone makers’ lukewarm response, the Company is working on the next generation 3D sensing with an aim to leapfrog the market by providing high performance, easy to adopt and yet cost friendly total solutions, targeting most of the Android smartphone players

Company remains positive on its long-term business outlook

 

 

Stock influences and risk factors

They derive the majority of net revenues from sales to the TFT-LCD panel industry, which is highly cyclical and subject to price fluctuations. Such cyclicality and price fluctuations could negatively impact the business or results of operations.

The concentration of accounts receivable and the extension of payment terms for certain customers exposes HIMX to increased credit risk and could harm operating results and cash flows.

Technological innovation may reduce the number of display drivers typically required for each panel, thereby reducing the number of display drivers they are able to sell per panel.

 

 

Stock chart

On Friday, November 16, 2018, HIMX shares closed at $4.47 on traded volume of 5.1 million shares. The current RSI (14) is 34.94 and the HIMX market cap is $769 million.

At $4.47, HIMX shares are trading below their 50DMA and 200 DMA of $5.68 and $6.84 respectively.

 

 

 

Disclaimer
Traders News Source is a wholly owned subsidiary of Traders News Source LLC, herein referred to as TNS LLC.
Traders News Source has not been compensated for this report by anyone and the opinions if any are that of the author Vikas Agrawal, CFA. Author’s Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I, wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in the article.
This web site, published by TNS LLC, and is an investment newsletter that is built on the premise of assisting individual investors in learning about investing. Our goal as publishers of financial information is to provide research and analysis of investments to our subscribers. TNS LLC does not give buy or sell recommendations. We do purchase distribution rights from analyst, financial writers and bloggers for a fee that may be licensed to issue price targets and recommendations. Furthermore, we encourage you to speak to a licensed professional prior to making an investment in any type of publicly traded security.
We do sell advertising to other companies including brokerage firms, web sites, publicly traded issuers, investor relations firms, and investment publications, among others. TNS LLC makes no warranty as to the policies of these organizations, and in no way endorses their offers, services, or the content of their advertisements.
When an advertiser is a publicly traded company or a third party acting on behalf of a public company, we fully disclose all compensation in the email advertisement. Such disclosure is included in a disclosure statement in each of the advertisements sent via email.
17B Disclosure
Our reports/releases are a commercial advertisement and are for general information purposes ONLY. We are engaged in the business of marketing and advertising companies for monetary compensation. Never invest in any stock featured on our site or emails unless you can afford to lose your entire investment. The disclaimer is to be read and fully understood before using our services, joining our site or our email/blog list as well as any social networking platforms we may use.
PLEASE NOTE WELL: TNS LLC and its employees are not a Registered Investment Advisor, Broker Dealer or a member of any association for other research providers in any jurisdiction whatsoever.
Release of Liability: Through use of this website viewing or using you agree to hold TNS LLC, its operator’s owners and employees harmless and to completely release them from any and all liability due to any and all loss (monetary or otherwise), damage (monetary or otherwise), or injury (monetary or otherwise) that you may incur. The information contained herein is based on sources which we believe to be reliable but is not guaranteed by us as being accurate and does not purport to be a complete statement or summary of the available data. TNS LLC encourages readers and investors to supplement the information in these reports with independent research and other professional advice. All information on featured companies is provided by the companies profiled or is available from public sources and TNS LLC makes no representations, warranties or guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the disclosure by the profiled companies. None of the materials or advertisements herein constitute offers or solicitations to purchase or sell securities of the companies profiled herein and any decision to invest in any such company or other financial decisions should not be made based upon the information provide herein. Instead TNS LLC strongly urges you conduct a complete and independent investigation of the respective companies and consideration of all pertinent risks. Readers are advised to review SEC periodic reports: Forms 10-Q, 10K, Form 8-K, insider reports, Forms 3, 4, 5 Schedule 13D.
TNS LLC is compliant with the Can Spam Act of 2003. TNS LLC does not offer such advice or analysis, and TNS LLC further urges you to consult your own independent tax, business, financial and investment advisors. Investing in micro-cap and growth securities is highly speculative and carries an extremely high degree of risk. It is possible that an investor’s investment may be lost or impaired due to the speculative nature of the companies profiled.
The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides investors a ‘safe harbor’ in regard to forward-looking statements. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, goals, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact may be “forward looking statements”. Forward looking statements are based on expectations, estimates, and projections at the time the statements are made that involve a number of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those presently anticipated. Forward looking statements in this action may be identified through use of words such as “projects”, “foresee”, “expects”, “will”, “anticipates”, “estimates”, “believes”, “understands”, or that by statements indicating certain actions & quote; “may”, “could”, or “might” occur.
Understand there is no guarantee past performance will be indicative of future results. In preparing this publication, TNS LLC has relied upon information supplied by its customers, publicly available information and press releases which it believes to be reliable; however, such reliability cannot be guaranteed. Investors should not rely on the information contained in this website. Rather, investors should use the information contained in this website as a starting point for doing additional independent research on the featured companies. The advertisements in this website are believed to be reliable, however, TNS LLC and its owners, affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors, representatives and agents disclaim any liability as to the completeness or accuracy of the information contained in any advertisement and for any omissions of materials facts from such advertisement. TNS LLC is not responsible for any claims made by the companies advertised herein, nor is TNS LLC responsible for any other promotional firm, its program or its structure.