Broker's take: OCBC Investment Research downgrades Yangzijiang to 'hold', but raises fair value to S$1.44

BROKERAGE OCBC Investment Research has downgraded its call on Yangzijiang Shipbuilding to "hold", but increased the fair value of the stock from S$1.41 to S$1.44, as it remains an outperformer in the weak shipbuilding market.

Yangzijiang posted a 22 per cent fall in revenue for the fourth quarter of FY2018, but saw an 84 per cent rise in net profit for the period to 1.2 billion yuan (S$242.6 million). For the full year, net profit stood at 3.6 billion yuan, a 23 per cent increase on FY2017.

OCBC analyst Low Pei Han said that the shipbuilder's results beat both the brokerage's and the street's expectations due to 494 million yuan of other income for Q4, as well as 344 million yuan of forex gains.

Despite outperforming, the brokerage downgraded the shipbuilder as "most of its positives have been priced in", Ms Low explained.

She noted that the shipping market remains weak and Yangzijiang has been pivoting from bulkers and containers, to tankers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.

That said, Yangzijiang has performed well, with the counter up by about 70 per cent since mid-July 2018.

Yangzijiang is still still hoping to secure US$2 billion in new orders for FY2019.