Image source: Himax.
What: Shares of Himax Technologies (HIMX -1.17%) were down 12% as of 11:30 a.m. ET Thursday despite the semiconductor company releasing decent first-quarter 2016 results and strong forward guidance.
So what: Quarterly revenue rose 1.3% sequentially and 0.7% year over year, to $180.3 million, within Himax's guidance range for revenue to be in the range of down 1% to up 4% on a sequential basis. Based on generally accepted accounting principles, that translated to net income of $13.1 million, or $0.076 per diluted American depositary share, above the high end of guidance for GAAP net income of $0.055 to $0.075 per share. On an adjusted non-GAAP basis, net income was $0.078 per share.
Analysts, on average, were anticipating lower earnings of $0.07 per share on slightly higher revenue of $181.3 million.
Now what: Looking forward, Himax anticipates revenue in the current quarter to climb 7.5% to 12.5% sequentially, and 14.6% to 19.9% year over year, resulting in a range of $193.8 million to $202.8 million. Meanwhile, GAAP earnings per share are expected to be $0.085 to $0.105, good for growth of 66.7% to 105.9% from last year's second quarter.
By comparison, analysts' consensus estimates called for second-quarter revenue of $191.5 million, and earnings of $0.07 per share.
So why the decline today? For one, keep in mind even after today's drop, shares of Himax are still up more than 16% so far in 2016, and have climbed nearly 60% over the past six months. And with shares now priced at a relatively steep 65 times trailing-12-month earnings (though also, to be fair, a more reasonable 21 times next year's estimates), it's apparent the market is frowning upon the company's ever-so-slight top-line "miss" for the first quarter. Whether Himax is under-promising with the intention of over-delivering remains to be seen.
