HTC January revenues hit 9-month low

Smartphone vendor HTC saw its consolidated revenues decline 27.16% on month and 27.98% on year to a nine-month low of NT$4.664 billion (US$148 million) in January.

The weak revenue performance was caused mainly by fewer working days in the month due to the Lunar New Year holidays, said market sources.

HTC's recently released high-end U-series smartphones, the U Ultra and U Play, which feature curved glass and artificial intelligence assistant, are expected to start contributing more revenues for the company in February, noted the sources.

HTC will start taking pre-orders for the U-series products in Hong Kong on February 7 and also begin marketing the devices in Europe at the end of Feb and in India in March, the sources added.

However, HTC might not be able to see its revenues increase significantly in February and March due to a number of factors, including reduced work days in February, tight supply of OLED panels, and weak sales momentum for the HTC Vive caused by its price and a lack of content support, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report, citing Morgan Stanley analyst Jasmine Lu.

Meanwhile, JP Morgan Securities also cut recently its target price for HTC shares to NT$58, said the report. HTC's share price was hovering at NT$76.50 in the mid-session on the February 7 trading on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE).