A steady ascent can be followed by a rapid decline. Peter Chou, chief executive of HTC, knows that only too well. Earnings at his Taiwanese mobile phone company grew more than fivefold in the six years before 2011. But yesterday, when HTC reported results for the fourth quarter of 2012, it announced the lowest quarterly net income since 2004. That puts full-year earnings on track for a three-quarters drop from their peak in 2011. The question is why HTC’s shares have rallied by a half over the past two months.
一段時間的穩步上升之後,隨之而來的可能是迅速下跌。HTC執行長周永明(Peter Chou)對此深有體會。他領導的這家臺灣手機企業的淨利潤在2005年至2011年這6年間成長逾4倍。但在昨日,HTC發佈了2012年第四季度季報,宣佈這是自2004年以來淨利潤最低的一個季度。這意味著,HTC的全年淨利潤在2011年達到峯值以後,連續第三個季度出現下跌。問題是,爲什麼HTC的股價在過去兩個月中累計上漲50%呢?