TSMC second-quarter net income rose 77.4 percent to NT$706.56bn

TSMC reported net income of NT$706.56bn for the second quarter, up 77.4 percent from a year earlier, on revenue of NT$1,270.38bn, or US$40.2bn. Diluted earnings were NT$27.25 a share. That is US$4.31 per ADR. Revenue landed at the top of the range the company guided in April, and both margins came in above guidance: gross margin was 67.7 percent against a guided 65.5 to 67.5, and operating margin 60.3 percent against 56.5 to 58.5. Net profit margin was 55.6 percent. Chips at 7-nanometer and below, where the advanced work sits, made up 77 percent of wafer revenue. Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said the quarter was supported by "strong demand for our leading-edge process technologies." For the third quarter TSMC guided revenue of US$44.6bn to US$45.8bn. The result landed the same morning that memory shares led a sharp selloff across Asian chip stocks, a split between the foundry that makes leading-edge logic and the memory makers that sell into a different corner of the market.