Tomen Devices Corporation, a Tokyo-listed semiconductor and electronics distributor (TSE: 2737), told shareholders on July 30 that a single quarter of surging memory prices had changed its year enough to warrant a mid-year rewrite of both its profit forecast and its dividend.
The company now expects full-year operating profit of ¥48.9bn, up 168.7% from the ¥18.2bn it forecast in April. Net sales guidance rises to ¥1.40tn from ¥750bn, an increase of 86.7%, while projected net profit attributable to shareholders climbs to ¥30.0bn from ¥11.0bn, up 172.7%. Every one of the revised figures is also well above what the company actually posted for the year that ended in March 2026: ¥633.7bn in sales and ¥10.0bn in net profit.
The trigger was the first quarter alone. Sales for April through June came in at ¥395.6bn, up 286.4% year on year, and operating profit rose to ¥22.3bn from ¥1.8bn a year earlier. Memory chips, mainly DRAM, NAND flash and solid-state drives sold into server, storage and automotive customers, drove nearly all of it: memory revenue jumped 372.8% to ¥383.0bn and now makes up 96.8% of total sales, up from 79.1% a year ago. The company said expanding demand for generative-AI products pushed memory prices further above its own planning assumptions than expected. Not every product line benefited: system LSI revenue, tied partly to smartphone camera sensors, fell 51.0% to ¥8.7bn, and other products including LED fell 26.9% to ¥539mn.
| Metric | Previous forecast (Apr 24) | Revised forecast (Jul 30) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net sales | ¥750bn | ¥1.40tn | +86.7% |
| Operating profit | ¥18.2bn | ¥48.9bn | +168.7% |
| Ordinary profit | ¥14.5bn | ¥40.8bn | +181.4% |
| Net profit (parent) | ¥11.0bn | ¥30.0bn | +172.7% |
| Annual dividend per share | ¥600 | ¥1,640 | +¥1,040 |
Shareholders get a direct share of the gain. Tomen Devices raised its full-year dividend forecast by ¥1,040 to ¥1,640 per share, up from ¥540 paid the prior year, putting the consolidated payout ratio at 37.2%. The increase follows a shareholder-return policy set out in the company's Medium-Term Management Plan 2028, covering the years ending March 2027 through March 2029: a dividend floor of ¥300 per share throughout the plan, with a target payout ratio of 40% by the plan's final year.
The company is not promising the second half looks the same. It flagged uncertainty over securing sufficient product volume and expects the recent run-up in memory prices to level off from here. Total assets grew 18.2% to ¥407.8bn and net assets rose 19.0% to ¥70.5bn during the quarter, but the equity ratio barely moved, edging up to 17.3% from 17.2%, a sign the balance sheet is still absorbing the short-term borrowing and higher receivables that came with the sales surge.