Stock earnings preview: UTAC 1st quarter result by Macquarie!

Macquarie Equity Research said it expects United Test and Assembly Center (UTAC) to report tomorrow a first-quarter net profit of 20 mln usd, more than the 3.90 mln usd it made a year before, but flat compared to the previous quarter's 20.06 mln usd. "We believe that the current tightness in the semiconductor test and assembly arena will allow UTAC to enjoy some form of pricing power, even though it will be modest in this cycle, given the industry's growing end exposure to consumer products," Macquarie said. Macquarie rates UTAC "outperform", with a target price of 1.22 sgd per share. At 4.33 pm, UTAC was down 0.01 sgd or 0.99 pct at 1.0, with 22.62 mln shares traded.