HTC forecasts higher fourth-quarter sales; above market estimates

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp said on Friday that it expects revenue in the fourth quarter to reach T$43 billion-T$47 billion ($1.4 billion-$1.57 billion), beating market expectations of T$41.5 billion. The forecast was also better than the T$41.86 billion revenue in the third quarter, the company said in a statement, without elaborating. Gross profit margin in the fourth quarter is expected to be between 19 and 21 percent, it said. The gross margin was 22.9 percent in the third quarter. Earlier this month, HTC said it earned T$640 million in unaudited net profit during the September quarter, well above a T$216.23 million mean estimate of 13 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. (Reporting by Faith Hung; Editing by Ryan Woo)