Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (ADR (TSM)

ddberg (98.25) Submitted: 9/25/07 11:20 AM : Start Price: $10.12 TSM Score: 20.82

Dominant world player in a business where the big get rich and the small disappear. Its margins are literally thousands of basis points higher than the nearest competitor. Very good at staying at the head of the line on high-end (i.e., high margin) chips and outsourcing the production of lower-margin chips to reduce costs. Since building new factories requires massive amounts of capital and enormous lenghts of time, the fact that TSM has been successful at producing high-margin, high-tech chips on older machinery gives the company an additional advantage over the competition and has helded maintain those huge margin advantages. Competition will always be fierce (e.g., Samsung increasing its focus in this area). But TSM's ability to produce massive amounts of cash, it's existing fast-growing dividend, and the possibility for share buybacks when capital doesn't have to be invested in increased capacity makes for additional stability in the stock during times of steep price declines. Looks like a good, solid, steady, long-term grower for the medium-term (5+ years).

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