“Solar and LED equipment maker GT Advanced Technologies Inc raised the lower end of its full-year 2014 adjusted profit forecast, citing higher gross margins for the second half of the year,” Lehar Maan reports for Reuters. “Shares of the company, which reported second-quarter results below analysts’ estimates, were up 12 percent in extended trading at $15.84.”
“‘They made a deal with Apple in December and there was speculation that the deliveries might be significantly delayed,’ Gilford Securities analyst Nimal Vallipuram said. ‘It looks like there is no significant change in their relationship with Apple,'” Maan reports. “Apple said in November last year that it will open a manufacturing facility in Arizona in partnership with GT Advanced to make sapphire materials for its popular electronics devices.”
“Sapphire glass, which is slightly less hard to diamond, could make Apple’s products scratch resistant and nearly unbreakable making it ideal for smartphone displays. ‘We have continued to see strong interest in our suite of sapphire production tools,’ Tom Gutierrez Chief Executive of GT Advanced said in a statement,” Maan reports. “‘Sapphire material sales to Apple have low gross margins so if you reduce that then equipment sales has higher gross margin, and they (GT Advanced) are seeing pretty high demand for sapphire equipment,’ Pacific Crest Securities analyst Weston Twigg said.”
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