Hot Stock TAS up 6% on strong 3Q results, dividend

by **Cals** Fri 25 Apr 2014, 02:03

Hot Stock TAS up 6% on strong 3Q results, dividend

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Jonathan Gan of theedgemalaysia.com

Thursday, 24 April 2014 10:19

KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 24): TAS Offshore Bhd (TAS) was among the top gainers and most actively traded counters at mid-morning Thursday after reporting a strong set of third quarter results and declaring a dividend of 2 sen per share.

At 9:41am, stocks of the shipbuilding company jumped 8 sen or 6% to RM 1.44 per share with some 10 million shares traded.

TAS’ net profit for its third quarter ended February 28, 2014 almost doubled year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM10.5 million from RM 5.3 million a year earlier.

Revenue for the quarter rose to RM 114.3 million from RM 41.1 million in the previous year’s same quarter.

The group attributed the higher revenue to the completion and delivery of several vessels.

RHB Retail Research which has a buy rating on the stock upped its fair value for TAS to RM2.19 (from RM1.57) citing the 153% gain in earnings.

Chaw Sook Ting, analyst at RHB Retail Research said that TAS’s 9MFY14 results were “above expectations” with its core earnings surging 122% y-o-y to RM23 million.

“During 3QFY14, the company delivered five units of vessels – a harbour tug, two tugboats and two anchor-handling tug supply (AHTS). On a quarterly basis, 3QFY14 net profit was 44% higher at RM10.5million, compared with RM7.3million in 2QFY14, while revenue jumped 133% quarter-on-quarter.”

“The fundamentals of the company remain solid, underpinned by positive prospects in the O&G sector, coupled with its strong orderbook and opportunities to reap a higher margin from its build-to-stock model, as well as its ability to capitalise on Labuan’s low tax system.” she said