CIMB Research maintains Neutral on Malaysian Pacific Industries

KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Equities Research is maintaining its Neutral call on Malaysian Pacific Industries (MPI) but lowered its target price from RM2.60 to RM2.38.
The
research house said on Tuesday MPI's RM3.6mil core earnings in the
third quarter ended March 2013 narrowed year-to-date core net losses to
RM100,000.
It said the financial performance was broadly in line
with its expectations as rising demand for smartphone and tablets
points to a stronger fourth quarter.
“MPI also declared a 5.0
sen tax-exempt dividend. Our earnings forecast rises by 0.3% as we
tweak our dividend per share forecast for FY13 to 9.1 sen versus 10 sen.
“Though
our forecasts are largely unchanged, our target price falls by 8.5% as
an unchanged two standard deviation below its five-year historical
price-to-book value average now works out to 0.71 times,” it said.
CIMB
Research said it was maintaining its Neutral call as the lack of
re-rating catalysts was reflected in its low valuations. Switch to MyEG
for growth, it said.