Taiwan Semiconductor Shines on Electrified Earnings and Sunny Guidance

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company TSM is shining on Thursday after conducting a successful first quarter. The Hsinchu, Taiwan-based firm's EPS rose over 18 percent year-over-year to $0.26, edging the Wall Street consensus of $0.25. Revenue jumped nearly 27 percent to $4.45 billion, narrowly surpassing estimates of $4.44 billion. Apple Pointing Toward TMSC? According to Apple Insider, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and other market watchers believe a fingerprint reader will make its way into the iPhone 5S. Kuo notes that Apple AAPL is expected to rely on a Taiwan-based supplier to build the rumored tool, as notes Apple Insider. And, according to the story, Kuo believes TSMC would be a reasonable foundry selection, as it previously made silicon for mobile and network security firm AuthenTec, which provides fingerprint sensors. This comes after an April 10 report by ZD Net that Apple may part ways with Samsung SSNLF in favor of TSMC to build its A7 processors. Decision on US Factory Still Cloudy According to Oregon Live, TSMC's WaferTech subsidiary has yet to decide on whether it will build a new factory in the US. The report notes that doing so could be beneficial to the world's largest semiconductor foundry, as it appears to be courting Apple. According to the story, Apple might prefer to keep production in the US to protect its intellectual property and meet its goal of making more chips domestically. Thus, a US factory would make sense if TSMC ultimately woos the wildly-popular tech firm from Samsung. TSMC currently has 20 factories in Taiwan and just one in the US. Dividend Proposed On February 5, the company's board of directors proposed a NT$3 (currently $0.10) cash dividend per common share. A decision on the proposal will be made on June 11 at the annual general meeting. Sunny Guidance TSMC anticipates second quarter sales of $5.16 to $5.22 billion. If this pans out, it will blow away analysts' expectations of $4.84 billion. One-Month High TSMC has surged to a one-month high on word of its successful earnings and strong guidance. The stock has soared above $18 for the first time since mid-March. Taiwan Semiconductor is up around 6.5 percent on Thursday.