(Bloomberg) -- One of Japan’s most reclusive companies, Fanuc Corp. has spent decades building a wall of secrecy around its ultra-profitable industrial-robotics business.

Outsiders are rarely allowed at its complex on the slopes of Mount Fuji, where an army of yellow robots work 24/7 making more robots in windowless yellow factories. Business is often done by fax to keep computer viruses out and technology in. E-mail is mostly banned. There’s no investor relations department and no conference calls with analysts. The founding Inaba family has the $46-billion company under a tight grip.

This is the latest target of Daniel Loeb, the activist investor and founder of New York-based hedge fund Third Point LLC. Loeb earlier waged a high-profile campaign in Japan against Sony Corp., which ended in October with mixed results. Last week, Loeb disclosed in a letter to shareholders that he also bought a stake in Fanuc and was agitating for change.

“This company is so incredibly innovative and forward looking in terms of its operational culture,” Loeb, 53, said Thursday in a telephone interview. “From a capital allocation standpoint, not so much.”

With operating profit margins topping 40 percent, Fanuc makes 25 percent more income per employee than Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to Loeb. He also compared the robot manufacturer to Apple Inc. in its tight focus on a small lineup of technologically superior products. Still, Loeb said, the debt-free company would be worth “significantly” more if it bought its own shares back, using some of the $8.5 billion in cash sitting idle on its balance sheet.

“They could afford to do all of it,” Loeb said.

David Fuller's view

With big operating profit margins, no debt and great clients, Fanuc (historic & weekly) is interesting to say the least.  I have been following Fanuc for decades, and actually had a family holding in the share during the 1990s.  I held it for three or four years, as I recall and it went nowhere.

I have thought about repurchasing Fanuc over the last few years, but never quite did so until now.  A little belatedly, I regard Fanuc as a successful company whose time has finally arrived.  Despite the share’s price appreciation, it is not that expensive with some $8.4bn in cash, an estimated p/e of 23.52 and yield of 1.02%, according to Bloomberg.  Looking ahead, I see no reason why Fanuc’s recent success should not be exponential, given the explosive growth in robotics that is underway.