think the cash reserve is there to get ready to set up another plant in china. one plant can cost easily 1 billion, so that amount can easily disappear in one decision. dont think there will be any dividend next year. like billywows, it will be shocking if there will be any.
Although, i am currently not vested in CSM. it is definitely on my radar screen. Along with HTL and Seksun.
My take is take 2007 will be a year of dividend plays cos the S44 balances will expire on 31 Dec 2007. Maybe, we should start a new thread to discuss possible plays.
Ooh. Btw, if u look at CSM cash holdings, u would have notice that they have quite a large cash holding. I wonder what is it for.
Really disappointed and tired with CSM liao as its AMD and Xbox 360 tie-ups have not much effect at all this year .... shocking that it may pay dividend next year though. Its Q4 results won't be exciting as it has reiterated its guidance early this month.
CSM is truely a speculative one .... Closed up 3.6% to 8.28 in Nasdaq last nite. Translate to 1.29 in SGX. Let's see today's trading .... Below great news from one of its clients.
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AMD still rolling
CFO predicts its chip shipments will outpace industry growth
"We still think we can outgrow the microprocessor industry," AMD Chief Financial Officer Bob Rivet said in a presentation to analysts in New York broadcast over the Internet.
In addition, AMD said it plans to generate higher-than-projected cost savings from its $5.4 billion acquisition of ATI Technologies and intends to make a broader push in the consumer electronics market.
Investors cheered AMD's game plan. In trading Thursday, shares of AMD surged over 12% to $22.71 on heavy volume, making the stock the second most active on the New York Stock Exchange.
Rivet forecasted AMD's computer-chip shipments will rise 20% in 2007, twice the rate it estimates the industry will grow, and predicted a kinder price environment for PC chips. Rivet's comments come as some industry concern lingers about an oversupply of PC chips.
The average selling prices of PC chips have taken a hit this year.
Prices have fallen as Intel sought to deplete excess inventory amid a broad counteroffensive that included the roll out of new chips to win back market share.
These moves hurt AMD's profit margins in the third quarter, and Intel has reclaimed some market share for chips used in desktop PCs and servers that power corporate networks.
"We believe the market is responding to our product and technology leadership," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy, who declined to offer Intel's 2007 shipment projections, citing the company's quiet period as the chipmaker is about to close its books on the current quarter.
AMD, the world's No. 2 maker of PC and corporate-server chips behind Intel, said that it boosted its factory output of microprocessors this year by 33% as it expanded its supply arrangements with PC makers.
It added Dell Inc. to its customer base, a key design win. Dell had previously only used Intel chips. AMD also expanded its supply relationships with Hewlett-Packard Co., International Business Machines Corp. and Lenovo Group.
At the same time, AMD will no longer be as dependent on corporations and consumers buying computers and server systems.
AMD closed its purchase of ATI Technologies Oct. 25, a move that diversifies AMD's footprint in the consumer electronics market, namely for graphics chips used in digital TVs and cell phones.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company aims to grow its consumer electronics unit from $550 million in sales to $2 billion by 2011, according to Dave Orton, the company's executive vice president of visual and media businesses.
On the ATI front, AMD is squeezing more savings from the deal.
Rivet estimated that AMD would save $150 million in 2007, better than the $75 million it had originally projected. In 2008, he said that the company expects cost savings to be $220 million, better than the $125 million it had predicted.
Looking at 2007, AMD forecast its gross profit margin at 50% of sales and pegged capital expenditures at $2.5 billion. Its tax rate was estimated at 26%.
On Monday, semiconductor giant Texas Instruments(NYSE: TXN) gave us a mid-quarter business update, with revised forward guidance and some explanation of the reasons why. The company's outlook is muted, with the tops of the new earnings and revenue ranges barely touching the lower extremes of the old ones.
Texas Instruments says that its customers haven't been putting in the order volumes expected, so it's cutting back production to keep inventory levels from careening out of control. That's a marked change from management's bullish position not two months ago, when it presented original guidance alongside third-quarter results.
The problem could have been worse, if TI relied on its own foundries to produce its chips. As it is, management can simply withhold a production run or two from outsourcing foundries like Chartered Semiconductor(Nasdaq: CHRT). It's bad news for those guys, but reduces the fixed-cost load for TI and protects its margins a bit.
This pessimistic update closely follows similarly dour outlooks from National Semiconductor(NYSE: NSM), Xilinx(Nasdaq: XLNX), and Broadcom(Nasdaq: BRCM) -- not to mention negative trends in the global cell phone market, according to Nokia(NYSE: NOK), and slower business spending, judging by comments from CDW(Nasdaq: CDWC).
"Given the combination of seasonal weakness that typically occurs in first quarter, and also considering that these kinds of corrections typically last more than a single quarter, we don't believe we've bottomed yet," said TI Vice President Ron Slaymaker. "So our expectation is first-quarter revenue will be lower than what we're seeing in the current quarter."
In other words, it looks like National Semi's pessimism set the pace for the semiconductor industry at large, rather than being an isolated issue at that company. Brace yourselves for some stormy seas, chip maker shareholders.
Nope, Rickytan .... Risky to go in at this price range. Done my buying at 1.00 earlier liao. Sold out 8 lots and loaded onto Centillion recently. Now am just waiting for the Big Boys to push them up for me. That's how I trade. HeeHee!
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