When the Chips Are Down, TSMC Delivers

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You need to know Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) (henceforth known as TSMC). The latest quarter's results simply underscore why I believe it's one of the finest investments available anywhere.

Third-quarter sales fell a modest 3.3% year over year to $2.76 billion, a 21% uptick from the previous quarter. Its $0.18 of earnings per American Depositary Share (ADS) were flat when compared to 2008, but 25% above the second quarter of 2009. The revenue results fell at the very top end of management guidance, and TSMC's recovery seems to be sharply V-shaped.

Indeed, this titan of chip manufacturing is outperforming many of its own customers:

Company	Year-Over-Year Revenue Change
NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA)	(35.2%)
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD)	(24.2%)
Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM)	(6.2%)
TSMC	(3.3%)
Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM)	9.4%

Data from Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's.

That's because TSMC and its rivals, like United Microelectronics (NYSE: UMC) and soon-to-be-acquired Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (Nasdaq: CHRT), live further down the food chain of the electronics industry, and thus become leading indicators of where the industry is going. It takes time to move a chip from the assembly line to Broadcom's inventory, so the fabless chip designers need to plan ahead. And as you can see, they're shoveling plenty of orders over TSMC and the other chip foundries at the moment -- sometimes too many.

I am a longtime TSMC shareholder, and I've been known to drop the name in front of our Global Gains analysts. TSMC dominates a business that is essential to the electronics infrastructure of the world. The company sports massive profit margins and just reported 27% return on equity -- and it even comes with a 4.8% cash dividend yield. What's not to love?