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Tiny Smartphone Component Has Lifted This Stock 840%

A Taiwanese manufacturer Yageo Corp. is the world’s hottest stock right now.

Tiny Smartphone Component Has Lifted This Stock 840%
Electrical capacitors sit in a bin on the axial fan assembly line inside the Ebm Papst GmbH transportation ventilation systems factory in Mulfingen, Germany (Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg)  

(Bloomberg) -- A Taiwanese manufacturer of components used in everything from smartphones to computers has turned into the world’s hottest stock amid surging demand for its products.

Yageo Corp. has jumped more than 800 percent since the start of last year, the most among stocks on MSCI Inc.’s global gauge, to add $8.3 billion of value. The company, which makes capacitors and resistors that are essential for regulating electrical flows within electronic products, boosted profit more than five-fold from a year earlier in the first quarter as competitors cut output.

Tiny Smartphone Component Has Lifted This Stock 840%

Chinese production of such components has been reduced as the government moved to curb pollution, while leading Japanese manufacturers have shifted capacity into other products, creating a shortage that has benefited Yageo, according to Allan Lin, assistant vice president at Concord Securities Co.

The result is an “astonishing” increase in earnings per share, Lin said.

Analysts continue to be bullish on the company, which supplies companies including Apple Inc., Intel Corp., and Sony Corp. There are 12 buys, zero holds and just one sell on the stock. The firm reported a 99 percent increase in sales in April from a year earlier.

“The gain in our stock is determined by the market based on our earnings results,” Yageo spokesperson Sandy Chang said by phone.

Chairman Pierre Chen has a 7.7 percent stake, according to the latest data compiled by Bloomberg.

Yageo rose 2 percent as of 10:08 a.m. in Taipei. Smaller competitors Holy Stone Enterprise Co. climbed 6.6 percent and Walsin Technology Corp. added 1.8 percent.

--With assistance from Sofia Horta e Costa and Young-Sam Cho

To contact the reporter on this story: Yu-Huay Sun in Taipei at ysun7@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Richard Frost at rfrost4@bloomberg.net, Philip Glamann, Ron Harui

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.