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Category: Fabrinet (FN)
Date: 27 December 2020 Stock price of Fabrinet (FN): $76.05 In this article we take a more detailed look at Fabrinet, firm that provides advanced optical packaging and precision optical, electro-mechanical and electronic manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) of complex products such as optical communication components, modules and sub-systems, industrial lasers, automotive components, medical devices and sensors
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We provide advanced optical packaging and precision optical, electro-mechanical and electronic manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) of complex products such as optical communication components, modules and sub-systems, industrial lasers, automotive components, medical devices and sensors "
More About Fabrinet
We provide advanced optical packaging and precision optical, electro-mechanical and electronic manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) of complex products such as optical communication components, modules and sub-systems, industrial lasers, automotive components, medical devices and sensors. We offer a broad range of advanced optical and electro-mechanical capabilities across the entire manufacturing process, including process design and engineering, supply chain management, manufacturing, complex printed circuit board assembly, advanced packaging, integration, final assembly and testing. Although we focus primarily on low-volume production of a wide variety of high complexity products, which we refer to as “low-volume, high-mix,” we also have the capability to accommodate high-volume production. Based on our experience with and positive feedback from our customers, we believe we are a global leader in providing these services to the optical communications, industrial lasers and automotive markets. Our customer base includes companies in complex industries that require advanced precision manufacturing capabilities, such as optical communications, industrial lasers, automotive and sensors. Our customers in these industries support a growing number of end-markets, including automotive, biotechnology, communications, materials processing, medical devices, metrology and semiconductor processing. Our total revenues for the year ended June 28, 2019 (“fiscal year 2019”) increased by $212.4 million, or 15.5%, from $1.37 billion for the year ended June 29, 2018 (“fiscal year 2018”) to $1.58 billion for fiscal year 2019. Our revenues from lasers, sensors and other markets as a percentage of total revenues decreased from 27.1% in fiscal year 2018 to 25.2% in fiscal year 2019, while our revenues from optical communications products as a percentage of total revenues increased from 72.9% in fiscal year 2018 to 74.8% in fiscal year 2019. In many cases, we are the sole outsourced manufacturing partner used by our customers for the products that we produce for them. The products that we manufacture for our OEM customers include:
We incorporate our customized optics and glass into many of the products we manufacture for our OEM customers, and we also sell customized optics and glass in the merchant market. We believe we offer differentiated manufacturing services through our optical and electro-mechanical process technologies and our strategic alignment with our customers. Our dedicated process and design engineers, who have a deep knowledge in materials sciences and physics, are able to tailor our service offerings to accommodate our customers’ complex engineering assignments. Our range of capabilities, from the design of customized optics and glass through process engineering and testing of finished assemblies, provides us with a knowledge base that we believe often leads to improvements in our customers’ product development cycles, manufacturing cycle times, quality and reliability, manufacturing yields and end product costs. We offer an efficient, technologically advanced and flexible manufacturing infrastructure designed to enable the scale production of low-volume, high-mix products, as well as high-volume products. We specialize in complex prototype and new product introduction services, with specialized resources to meet customers’ quick-turn printed circuit board assembly (“PCBA”) and early stage manufacturing requirements. We have a dedicated engineering team to support the advanced optical packaging needs of our customers’ cutting edge products, which allows them to accelerate development and time-to-market for such products.
We often provide a “factory within-a-factory” manufacturing environment to safeguard our customers’ intellectual property by physically segregating certain key employees and manufacturing space from the resources we use for other customers. We also provide our customers with a customized software platform to monitor all aspects of the manufacturing process, enabling our customers to remotely access our databases to monitor yields, inventory positions, work-in-progress status and vendor quality data in real time. We believe there is no other manufacturing services provider with a similar breadth and depth of optical and electro-mechanical engineering and process technology capabilities that does not directly compete with its customers in their end-markets. As a result, we believe we are more closely aligned and better able to develop long-term relationships with our customers than our competitors. As of June 28, 2019, our facilities comprised approximately 2.0 million total square feet, including approximately 0.2 million square feet of office space and approximately 1.8 million square feet devoted to manufacturing and related activities, of which approximately 0.8 million square feet are clean room facilities. Of the aggregate square footage of our facilities, approximately 1.5 million square feet are located in Thailand and the remaining balance is located in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC” or “China”), the United Kingdom, the United States and the Cayman Islands
- optical communications devices, such as:
- selective switching products, such as reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (“ROADMs”), optical amplifiers, modulators and other optical components and modules that collectively enable network managers to route voice, video and data communications traffic through fiber optic cables at various wavelengths, speeds, and over various distances;
- tunable lasers, transceivers, and transponders that eliminate, at a significant cost savings to the service provider, the need to stock individual fixed wavelength optical transceivers and transponders used in voice and data communications networks; and
- active optical cables providing high-speed interconnect capabilities for data centers and computing clusters, as well as Infiniband, Ethernet, fiber channel and optical backplane connectivity;
- solid state, diode-pumped, gas and fiber lasers (collectively referred to as “industrial lasers”) used across a broad array of industries, including semiconductor processing (wafer inspection, wafer dicing, wafer scribing), biotechnology and medical device (DNA sequencing, flow cytometry, hematology, antibody detection), metrology (instrumentation, calibration, inspection), and material processing (metal, polymer, textile drilling and cutting, annealing, marking, engraving, and welding); and
- sensors, including differential pressure, micro-gyro, fuel and other sensors that are used in automobiles, and non-contact temperature measurement sensors for the medical industry. We also design and fabricate application-specific crystals, lenses, prisms, mirrors, laser components and substrates (collectively referred to as “customized optics”) and other custom and standard borosilicate, clear 2 fused quartz, and synthetic fused silica glass products (collectively referred to as “customized glass”).
We incorporate our customized optics and glass into many of the products we manufacture for our OEM customers, and we also sell customized optics and glass in the merchant market. We believe we offer differentiated manufacturing services through our optical and electro-mechanical process technologies and our strategic alignment with our customers. Our dedicated process and design engineers, who have a deep knowledge in materials sciences and physics, are able to tailor our service offerings to accommodate our customers’ complex engineering assignments. Our range of capabilities, from the design of customized optics and glass through process engineering and testing of finished assemblies, provides us with a knowledge base that we believe often leads to improvements in our customers’ product development cycles, manufacturing cycle times, quality and reliability, manufacturing yields and end product costs. We offer an efficient, technologically advanced and flexible manufacturing infrastructure designed to enable the scale production of low-volume, high-mix products, as well as high-volume products. We specialize in complex prototype and new product introduction services, with specialized resources to meet customers’ quick-turn printed circuit board assembly (“PCBA”) and early stage manufacturing requirements. We have a dedicated engineering team to support the advanced optical packaging needs of our customers’ cutting edge products, which allows them to accelerate development and time-to-market for such products.
We often provide a “factory within-a-factory” manufacturing environment to safeguard our customers’ intellectual property by physically segregating certain key employees and manufacturing space from the resources we use for other customers. We also provide our customers with a customized software platform to monitor all aspects of the manufacturing process, enabling our customers to remotely access our databases to monitor yields, inventory positions, work-in-progress status and vendor quality data in real time. We believe there is no other manufacturing services provider with a similar breadth and depth of optical and electro-mechanical engineering and process technology capabilities that does not directly compete with its customers in their end-markets. As a result, we believe we are more closely aligned and better able to develop long-term relationships with our customers than our competitors. As of June 28, 2019, our facilities comprised approximately 2.0 million total square feet, including approximately 0.2 million square feet of office space and approximately 1.8 million square feet devoted to manufacturing and related activities, of which approximately 0.8 million square feet are clean room facilities. Of the aggregate square footage of our facilities, approximately 1.5 million square feet are located in Thailand and the remaining balance is located in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC” or “China”), the United Kingdom, the United States and the Cayman Islands
Fabrinet growth strategy
Our Growth Strategy The key elements of our growth strategy are to:
- Strengthen Our Presence in the Optical Communications Market: We believe we are a leader in manufacturing products for the optical communications market. The optical communications market is growing rapidly, driven by the growth in demand for increased network bandwidth and penetration from core to metro networks and data center infrastructures. We believe this trend will continue to increase the demand for the products that we manufacture and the services we provide. We continue to invest resources in advanced manufacturing process and optical packaging technologies to support the manufacture of the next generation of complex optical products.
- Leverage Our Technology and Manufacturing Capabilities to Continue to Diversify Our End-Markets: We intend to use our technological strengths in precision optical and electro-mechanical manufacturing, advanced packaging and process design engineering to continue our diversification into industrial lasers, medical, sensors, and other select markets that require similar capabilities.
- Continue to Extend Our Customized Optics and Glass Vertical Integration: We will continue to extend our vertical integration into customized optics and glass in order to gain greater access to key components used in the complex products we manufacture as well as to continue our diversification into new markets. We believe our customized optics and glass capabilities are highly complementary to our optical and electro-mechanical manufacturing services, and we intend to continue to market these products to our existing manufacturing services customers. In addition, we intend to continue our focus on customized optics and glass through further investment into research and development, as well as through potential acquisitions in what remains a highly fragmented market.
- Evaluate Potential Strategic Alternatives such as Acquisitions and Joint Ventures: We will continue to evaluate opportunities to further expand our manufacturing capabilities and diversify our end-markets through the evaluation of various acquisition and joint venture opportunities around the globe.
- Broaden Our Client Base Geographically: Our manufacturing services are incorporated into products that are distributed in markets worldwide, but we intend to further build out our client base in strategic regions. We intend to focus on expanding our client base in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the United States. We believe these regions have a large and robust optics market, as well as a need for advanced manufacturing services in other growth markets, and would benefit from our precision optical and electromechanical manufacturing services.
- Establish New Product Introduction (“NPI”) Centers to Generate and Transfer New Business to Thailand: We established Fabrinet West, Inc. as an NPI center in the heart of Silicon Valley. Fabrinet West, Inc. serves as our business development arm with emphasis on new business generation and eventual transfer to Thailand after NPI. Equipped with state-of-the-art surface mount and advanced optical packaging technologies and infrastructure, and with close proximity to a large portion of our customer base, this center helps to accelerate customer NPI and provides seamless access and future transfer to the low-cost manufacturing base in Thailand. In March 2018, we began laying the groundwork for a new NPI facility in Israel, where we expect to continue our proven model of providing local NPI services, helping our customers with design for manufacturability, and then transferring those programs to Thailand for volume manufacturing.
Technology of Fabrinet (FN)
Based on our experience with customers and our qualitative assessment of our capabilities, we believe we provide a broader array of process technologies to the optics industry than any other manufacturing services provider. We also continue to invest in customized optics and glass technology including in the areas of crystal growth, crystal and glass processing, optical coating, polishing and lapping, optical assemblies and precision glass drawing. We intend to continue to increase our process engineering capabilities and manufacturing technologies to extend our product portfolio and continue to gain market share in the optics industry. Our internally developed and licensed technologies include the following:
We believe many of these manufacturing processes and technologies will be key to developing and commercializing the next generation of optical devices, which may include multi-function passive optics and photonic integrated circuits (which are devices that incorporate various optical components and modules into a packaged chip), receivers integrated with an optical amplifier, and active optical cabling. We also anticipate our customers will continue to desire our vertically integrated capabilities, designing customized optics and glass to be incorporated into optical components, modules and complete network or laser systems.
- Advanced Optical Packaging: We have extensive experience in developing manufacturing processes and performing value engineering to improve our customers’ product performance, quality, reliability and manufacturing yields. In many cases, we partner with our customers to develop custom manufacturing solutions for their optics products.
- Reliability Testing: Our reliability laboratory enables us to test the degree to which our results and specifications conform to our customers’ requirements. Through the reliability laboratory, we are able to perform most of the tests required by industry standards, including damp heat, thermal aging, thermal shock, temperature cycling, shock and vibration, accelerated life testing and stress screening. The reliability laboratory is critical to verification of root cause failure analysis.
- Optical and Mechanical Material and Process Analysis: Our in-house material and process laboratory analyzes materials to support incoming inspection, process development, process monitoring, failure analysis and verification of compliance with the applicable environmental standards.
- Precision Optical Fiber and Electro-Mechanical Assembly: We have extensive experience in precision optical and electro-mechanical assemblies in clean room environments, clean room control discipline, cleaning technologies and electro-static discharge (“ESD”) protection.
- Fiber Metallization and Lensing: We use our fiber metallization and fiber lensing capabilities to assist our customers in packaging their products. Many optical component package designs require metallized fiber and some designs also require lensing at the tip of the fiber. We have in-house capabilities that enable us to produce these products at a low cost, with short lead times and high quality.
- Fiber Handling and Fiber Alignment: The technique with which optical fiber is handled can have a significant impact on the functionality and reliability of optics products due to the risk of damage or flaws introduced to the fiber surface or micro-cracks to the core of the fiber, which may impact alignment or signal quality, among other things. We have implemented a number of processes, techniques, and best practices to avoid stressing or otherwise damaging fiber during stripping, cleaving and connectorization. Such techniques are also designed to achieve optimal alignment of fiber in the shortest period of time during these processes.
- Optical Testing: We have the capability to perform parametric and functional tests for a wide variety of optical devices. In many cases, we are also able to help our customers develop their own proprietary software and test fixtures.
- Crystal Growth and Processing: Our crystal growth technology produces non-linear optical crystals and crystals used in laser applications. Our processing capabilities include dicing, grinding, polishing and inspection with high dimension, tolerance and surface quality.
- Precision Glass Drawing: We have developed the specialized capabilities necessary to draw precision structures within tight tolerances using borosilicate, clear fused quartz and synthetic fused silica glass. Using these processes, we produce customized rectangular and circular glass tubes and rods in various configurations and with multiple bores that are accurately drawn in precise locations within the tubing. These tubes can be sliced into thin wafers for use in various applications, such as ultra-filtration of bacteria, micro-organism counting, and identification of organisms and substances. These tubes can also be cut into larger lengths to produce ferrules and sleeves for use in fiber optic communications components.
- Optical Coating: We provide a wide variety of coating from simple single layer anti-reflection coatings to complex multi-layer stacks. The types of coating we provide include anti-reflection, partial reflection and high reflection. We continuously invest in new and optimized processes to accommodate the next generation of optical devices, such as optical packaging, anti-reflective coating and complex printed circuit board technologies.
We believe many of these manufacturing processes and technologies will be key to developing and commercializing the next generation of optical devices, which may include multi-function passive optics and photonic integrated circuits (which are devices that incorporate various optical components and modules into a packaged chip), receivers integrated with an optical amplifier, and active optical cabling. We also anticipate our customers will continue to desire our vertically integrated capabilities, designing customized optics and glass to be incorporated into optical components, modules and complete network or laser systems.
Customers, sales and marketing of Fabrinet
The optical communications market we serve is highly concentrated. Therefore, we expect a significant percentage of our total revenues will continue to come from a small number of customers. During fiscal years 2019 and 2018, we had one customer, Lumentum Operations LLC, that contributed 10% or more of our total revenues, with 20% of our total revenues in fiscal year 2019 and 16% in fiscal year 2018.
The production of optical devices is characterized by a lengthy qualification process. In particular, the qualification and field testing of the products that we produce for our customers may take three to six months or longer to complete. Generally, we must qualify our production process with our customers, and the products that we manufacture must also meet the product quality requirements of our customers’ customers. While most of our customers do not purchase our services until they qualify the services and satisfactorily complete factory audits and vendor evaluations, we typically produce a test run of their products to demonstrate that the products we produce will meet their qualification standards in advance of receiving an order. As part of this process, our engineers work closely with the customer’s design and procurement teams. We believe that the rigorous product transfer and qualification processes, and the close relationships that we develop with our customers during those processes, results in greater visibility into product life cycles and longer-term customer engagements.
The production of optical devices is characterized by a lengthy qualification process. In particular, the qualification and field testing of the products that we produce for our customers may take three to six months or longer to complete. Generally, we must qualify our production process with our customers, and the products that we manufacture must also meet the product quality requirements of our customers’ customers. While most of our customers do not purchase our services until they qualify the services and satisfactorily complete factory audits and vendor evaluations, we typically produce a test run of their products to demonstrate that the products we produce will meet their qualification standards in advance of receiving an order. As part of this process, our engineers work closely with the customer’s design and procurement teams. We believe that the rigorous product transfer and qualification processes, and the close relationships that we develop with our customers during those processes, results in greater visibility into product life cycles and longer-term customer engagements.
Backlog of Fabrinet
We are substantially dependent on orders we receive and fill on a short-term basis. Although we often receive a 12-month forecast from our customers, our customer contracts do not provide any assurance of future sales, and sales are typically made pursuant to individual purchase orders that have short lead times and are subject to revision or cancellation. Because of the possibility of changes in delivery or acceptance schedules, cancellations of orders, returns or price reductions, we do not believe that backlog is a reliable indicator of our future revenues.
Suppliers of Raw Materials to Fabrinet
Our manufacturing operations use a wide variety of optical, semiconductor, mechanical and electronic components, assemblies and raw materials. We generally purchase materials from our suppliers through standard purchase orders, as opposed to long-term supply agreements. We rely on sole-source suppliers for a number of critical materials. Some of these sole-source suppliers are small businesses, which presents risks to us based on their financial health and reliability, which we continually monitor. We have historically experienced supply shortages resulting from various causes, including reduced yields by our suppliers, which have prevented us from manufacturing products for our customers in a timely manner.
While we continually undertake programs to strengthen our supply chain, we are experiencing, and expect for the foreseeable future to continue to experience, strain on our supply chain, as well as periodic supplier problems. We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur for the foreseeable future, costs to address these problems
While we continually undertake programs to strengthen our supply chain, we are experiencing, and expect for the foreseeable future to continue to experience, strain on our supply chain, as well as periodic supplier problems. We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur for the foreseeable future, costs to address these problems
Quality of Fabrinet
We have an extensive quality management system that focuses on continual process improvement and achieving high levels of customer satisfaction. We employ a variety of enhanced statistical engineering techniques and other tools to improve product and service quality. In addition, we generally offer a warranty ranging from one to five years on the products that we assemble. Generally, this warranty is limited to our workmanship and our liability is capped at the price of the product.
Additionally, we are required to register with the FDA and other regulatory bodies and are subject to continual review and periodic inspection for compliance with various regulations, including testing, quality control and documentation procedures. We hold the following additional certifications: ANSI ESD S20.20 for facilities and manufacturing process control, in compliance with ESD standard; Transported Asset Protection Association, or TAPA, for Logistic Security Management System; and CSR-DIW for Corporate Social Responsibility in Thailand. In the European Union, we are required to maintain certain ISO certifications in order to sell our precision optical, electro-mechanical and electronic manufacturing services and we must undergo periodic inspections by regulatory bodies to obtain and maintain these certifications. In addition to these standards, we are committed to the deployment of sustainable manufacturing, lean initiatives, and continuous improvement throughout our operations. The implementation of lean manufacturing initiatives helps improve efficiency and reduce waste in the manufacturing process in areas such as inventory on hand, set up times, and floor space and the number of people required for production, while Kaizen and Six Sigma ensures continuous improvement by reducing process variation
Additionally, we are required to register with the FDA and other regulatory bodies and are subject to continual review and periodic inspection for compliance with various regulations, including testing, quality control and documentation procedures. We hold the following additional certifications: ANSI ESD S20.20 for facilities and manufacturing process control, in compliance with ESD standard; Transported Asset Protection Association, or TAPA, for Logistic Security Management System; and CSR-DIW for Corporate Social Responsibility in Thailand. In the European Union, we are required to maintain certain ISO certifications in order to sell our precision optical, electro-mechanical and electronic manufacturing services and we must undergo periodic inspections by regulatory bodies to obtain and maintain these certifications. In addition to these standards, we are committed to the deployment of sustainable manufacturing, lean initiatives, and continuous improvement throughout our operations. The implementation of lean manufacturing initiatives helps improve efficiency and reduce waste in the manufacturing process in areas such as inventory on hand, set up times, and floor space and the number of people required for production, while Kaizen and Six Sigma ensures continuous improvement by reducing process variation
Competition of Fabrinet
Although the manufacturing services market is highly competitive, we believe that there are significant barriers to entry in our existing and target markets, including lengthy sales cycles, the need to demonstrate complex precision optical and electro-mechanical engineering and manufacturing capabilities to a prospective customer and the ability to protect a customer’s intellectual property. Our overall competitive position depends upon a number of factors, including:
Competitors in the market for optical manufacturing services include Benchmark Electronics, Inc., Celestica Inc., Sanmina-SCI Corporation, Jabil Circuit, Inc. and Venture Corporation Limited, as well as the internal manufacturing capabilities of our customers. Our customized optics and glass operations face competition from companies such as Browave Corporation, Fujian Castech Crystals, Inc., Photop Technologies, Inc. and Research Electro-Optic, Inc. Our UK competitors for printed circuit board assemblies include STI Limited and Axiom Manufacturing Services Limited
- our manufacturing technologies and capacity;
- the quality of our manufacturing processes and products;
- our supply chain tools and data management systems;
- our ability to safeguard and protect our customers’ intellectual property; • our engineering and prototyping capabilities;
- our ability to strengthen and broaden our engineering services and know-how to participate in the growth of emerging technologies;
- our ability to deliver on-time;
- our ability to deliver continuous cost improvements; and
- our responsiveness and flexibility.
Competitors in the market for optical manufacturing services include Benchmark Electronics, Inc., Celestica Inc., Sanmina-SCI Corporation, Jabil Circuit, Inc. and Venture Corporation Limited, as well as the internal manufacturing capabilities of our customers. Our customized optics and glass operations face competition from companies such as Browave Corporation, Fujian Castech Crystals, Inc., Photop Technologies, Inc. and Research Electro-Optic, Inc. Our UK competitors for printed circuit board assemblies include STI Limited and Axiom Manufacturing Services Limited
Intellectual property of Fabrinet
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to protect our customers’ intellectual property. We license various technologies from our customers on a non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-transferable basis for the sole purpose of allowing us to manufacture products for those customers in accordance with their specifications. We have no rights to disclose, use, sublicense or sell this licensed technology for any other purpose. The duration of these licenses is limited to the duration of the underlying supply or manufacturing agreement. To meet the demands of certain customers, we created a factory-within-a-factory manufacturing environment that physically separates the manufacturing sites from one another. Some customers, for example, demand anonymity at our facilities while other customers require additional security measures such as biometric devices to safeguard their segregated manufacturing areas. We regard our own manufacturing process technologies and customized optics and glass designs as proprietary intellectual property. We own any process engineering technology independently developed in-house by our technical staff.
As part of our manufacturing services, to the extent we utilize our own manufacturing process technologies in the manufacture of our customers’ products, we grant our customers a royalty-free license to these process engineering technologies for the purpose of allowing our customers to make their products. Any process engineering or other improvements that we develop in connection with the improvement or optimization of a process for the manufacturing of a customer’s products are immediately assigned to that customer. To protect our proprietary rights, we rely largely upon a combination of trade secrets, non-disclosure agreements and internal security systems. Historically, patents have not played a significant role in the protection of our proprietary rights. Nevertheless, we currently have a relatively small number of solely-owned and jointly held PRC patents in various customized optic technologies with expiration dates between 2022 and 2034. We believe that both our evolving business practices and industry trends may result in the continued growth of our patent portfolio and its importance to us, particularly as we expand our business
As part of our manufacturing services, to the extent we utilize our own manufacturing process technologies in the manufacture of our customers’ products, we grant our customers a royalty-free license to these process engineering technologies for the purpose of allowing our customers to make their products. Any process engineering or other improvements that we develop in connection with the improvement or optimization of a process for the manufacturing of a customer’s products are immediately assigned to that customer. To protect our proprietary rights, we rely largely upon a combination of trade secrets, non-disclosure agreements and internal security systems. Historically, patents have not played a significant role in the protection of our proprietary rights. Nevertheless, we currently have a relatively small number of solely-owned and jointly held PRC patents in various customized optic technologies with expiration dates between 2022 and 2034. We believe that both our evolving business practices and industry trends may result in the continued growth of our patent portfolio and its importance to us, particularly as we expand our business
Employees of Fabrinet
As of June 28, 2019, we employed approximately 11,670 full-time employees worldwide, including approximately 11,372 employees in manufacturing operations and 298 employees in business development and general and administrative functions. None of our employees are represented by a labor union. We have not experienced any work stoppages, slowdowns, or strikes. We consider our relations with our employees to be positive.
Fabrinet (FN) stock price history over the last 5 years
The image below shows the stock price history of Fabrinet (FN). Over the last 5 years the stock of Fabrinet (FN) has increased by 241.9%. That isa return very few stockholders will say no to.