X-Factor Helps Sensor Maker Ams Defy Stock-Market Slump

   By Marc Navarro Gonzalez 
 

Shares in ams AG (AMS.EB) climbed Tuesday despite an overall market drop after the Austrian company reported a significant rise in its fourth-quarter net profit, driven in part by Apple Inc. (AAPL) incorporating a 3D sensor in its iPhone X.

The sensor maker said net profit for the period was 102.6 million euros ($127.6 million), more than seven times its EUR13.7 million net profit a year earlier. Revenue jumped to EUR470.3 million compared with EUR133.6 million, ams said.

At 1125 GMT, shares of the Switzerland-listed Austrian company were trading 9% higher at CHF95.0, with the overall market in Zurich down 1.8%.

Bryan Garnier said the results were driven by the use of a 3D sensor in Apple's new iPhone X. Fourth-quarter results were "well above the street's expectations," Bryan Garnier said. The European bank said the semiconductor company also provided a "great outlook" for 2018 and 2019.

Based on higher revenue pipeline visibility, ams has increased its revenue-growth estimates for 2016-2019 to 60% compound annual growth rate.

Write to Marc Navarro Gonzalez at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 06, 2018 06:50 ET (11:50 GMT)

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