Bank of China International released a research report saying that maintaining the ASMPT (00522) “buy” rating, the first quarter results and the second quarter guidance were mixed. Sales slowed but order volume clearly recovered quarterly, and the target price was raised from HK$109.5 to HK$116.2.
The bank believes that generative AI has long-term structural demand for the company's advanced packaging products, including TCB, HB, and SiPh. Although some companies, including ASML and TSMC, have recently indicated that the recovery in global semiconductor capital expenditure is still not obvious, causing the risk-return on holding semiconductor equipment stocks to decline. Despite this, the bank believes that the successive introduction of technologies such as GPT-5, Sora, and LLAMA-3 will maintain the industry's fear of losing out on generative AI, so advanced packaging equipment stocks will remain popular for investment this year.