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Quanta Q1 net up 24 pct on notebook PC demand
(Adds detail, president quotes, analyst comments)
TAOYUAN, Taiwan, April 26 (Reuters) - Taiwan's Quanta Computer Inc. (2382.TW), the world's largest contract maker of laptop computers, said on Thursday its quarterly earnings rose 24 percent on healthy demand for its notebook PCs.
As consumer notebooks are seeing steady growth from emerging markets, Quanta also expects its second-quarter laptop shipments to rise 10 percent from 6.2 million in the previous three months.
Analysts expect Quanta to receive more big-brand notebook orders this year, and said the company could see growth in its non-notebook sectors such as MP3 players and GPS devices.
"We believe Quanta is likely to benefit from new Apple (AAPL.O) MacBook orders," said Goldman Sachs analyst Henry King, who currently rates the firm "neutral" with a 12-month target price of T$56, up about 11 percent from its current level.
Quanta forecast its 2007 laptop PC shipments at 25 million units, and predicted global laptop shipments of 90 million units this year.
Quanta, which supplies top PC vendors such as Dell Inc. (DELL.O) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ.N), posted January-March net profit of T$3.402 billion ($102 million), up from T$2.74 billion a year ago.
The first-quarter result was in line with expectations for a T$3.45 billion profit, according to forecasts from four analysts surveyed by Reuters Estimates.
Compal Electronics Inc. (2324.TW), the world's No.2 contract laptop maker, on Monday posted an 18 percent rise in quarterly profit and forecast 2007 shipments would rise 38 percent from 2006.
Together, Quanta and Compal make 40 percent of the world's notebook computers.
Quanta shares have dropped 15 percent so far this year, while Compal has gained 7 percent. Taiwan's main TAIEX index has gained 2 percent.
Quanta trades at 15 times estimated earnings, against Compal's 13 times, according to Reuters data.
(US$1=T$33.2)
((Reporting by Sheena Lee, editing by Ian Geoghegan; Reuters Messaging: sheena.lee.reuters.com@reuters.net; +886 2 2508-0815)) Keywords: QUANTA RESULTS/
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