TAINAN, Taiwan — Shares of Himax Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: HIMX) exploded more than 40% in morning trading Thursday after the display driver and semiconductor specialist posted first-quarter results that topped its own guidance and issued upbeat projections for the current quarter, highlighting strength in automotive displays, AI sensing and emerging smart glasses applications.

The stock, which closed Wednesday at roughly $12.33, surged as high as $17.50 intraday on heavy volume. By late morning, shares traded around $17.36, up $5.03 or 40.80%, marking one of the largest single-day gains in the company's history and boosting its market capitalization by more than $800 million.

Himax reported first-quarter net revenue of $199.0 million, a modest 2.0% sequential decline that landed at the high end of its February guidance range of a 2-6% drop. Gross margin held steady at 30.4%, also at the upper end of expectations. After-tax profit reached $8.0 million, or 4.6 cents per diluted American Depositary Share (ADS), exceeding the guided range of 2.0 to 4.0 cents.

Strong Q2 Outlook Fuels Rally

Management guided second-quarter revenue to rise 10.0% to 13.0% sequentially, with gross margin around 32% and profit per diluted ADS between 8.6 and 10.3 cents. The upbeat forecast signaled a clear rebound from the seasonal trough in Q1 and reinforced confidence in a stronger second half.

"We expect upward momentum through the remainder of 2026, supported by a meaningful number of new automotive projects scheduled to enter mass production in the second half," said Jordan Wu,........

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