Banks maintains "buy" call on Leong Hup despite slashed profit forecast

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 (Bernama) -- Maybank Investment, AmInvestment Bank and RHB Bank have maintained their “Buy” call on Leong Hup International (LHL),  despite a significant decline in the average selling prices in most of the products sold by the integrated poultry company, particularly in Malaysia.

Market volatility and declining demand have caused LHI to cut its net profit forecast for the second half this year(Q2FY19). 

"Following the earnings revision, our fair value is reduced to RM1.17 from RM1.46 based on a price to earnings ratio of 18x over FY20 earnings. Nonetheless, the stock still offers a potential upside of 38 per cent, hence, we are maintaining our buy recommendation," said AmBank in its equity report today. 

Meanwhile, the weak prices according to RHB Bank could be due to the strong market supply during the quarter but highlighted that prices have rebounded in the Q3 FY19.

"We maintain our positive stance on LHI as we believe investors should be focused on the longer-term earnings prospects driven by capacity expansion and robust poultry consumption," it said. 

MIDF Investment in its report downgraded the company to “Neutral” as the earnings were expected to normalise to below RM45 million. 

"This translates into a decline of about 25 per cent quarter to quarter. This is largely due to the significant reduction in the average selling price of the products sold in the country," it said. 

As of 10.10am, Leong Hup's shares declined by five sen to 80 sen. 

-- BERNAMA