ChipMOS Technologies "More upside in gross margins from Q226; entering..."

Research evidence excerpt

ChipMOS Technologies "More upside in gross margins from Q226; entering..."

12/26E 3.25 3.98 23 3.73

improved due to seasonality. Given the upward price adjustment and improving loading

12/27E 4.38 5.43 24 4.33

rates, we expect both memory and driver IC product lines to see a meaningful margin

12/28E 5.04 6.19 23 -

recovery from Q226E. We forecast ChipMOS's Q226E sales to grow 8% QoQ, with GM

improving by 3ppt QoQ to 16.8%. We expect GM to further advance into Q326E, Jerry Su

supported by the full-quarter benefit of driver IC price hikes and ramp of new capacity Analyst

for higher-margin testing business. We expect the GM to trend toward 20% in 2027E. jerry.su@ubs.com

+886-28-722 7306

Diversifying into LPO/optical business via its bumping know-how

Management said it is also working on LPO/optical bumping given the strong customer

interest in shifting from wire-bonding to bumping for high-speed optical components. It

believes its experience and know-how in driver IC gold bumping positions it well to

penetrate the optical supply chain. That said, we believe ChipMOS is at least one year

behind its peer Chipbond and therefore we do not expect a meaningful revenue

contribution in 2026E. Nevertheless, LPO/optical bumping should be margin accretive

and could become a new growth engine for ChipMOS from H227.

Valuation: Raise price target to NT$105; reiterate Buy rating

Our PT of NT$105 is based on 19x 2027E PE (vs 5-20x historical range), in line with the

average multiple of ChipMOS's driver IC and memory OSAT peers. With the improving

ASP environment in driver IC back-end and potential further memory back-end price

hikes, we expect the stock to re-rate alongside its improving revenue and GM outlook.

Highlights (NT$m) 12/23 12/24 12/25 12/26E 12/27E 12/28E 12/29E 12/30E