Yangzijiang Shipbuilding rises 10.7% on improved earnings; hits record in intraday trade

[SINGAPORE] Shares of Yangzijiang Shipbuilding rallied on Friday (Feb 27) after the Chinese vesselmaker posted higher earnings for its second half.

The counter hit an record high in intraday trade and climbed as high as S$4.37 as at 11.20 am, up by 11.5 per cent or S$0.45 from Thursday’s closing price of S$3.92, with some 45.1 million shares changing hands.

This marks the highest price the stock has reached since it listed on the mainboard of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) in Apr 2007, data from ShareInvestor, Yahoo Finance and Google Finance shows. It finished Friday 10.7 per cent or S$0.42 higher at S$4.34, as the top traded stock on the SGX by volume, with close to 70.5 million shares transacted.

On Wednesday, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding posted a 24.6 per cent rise in net profit to 4.5 billion yuan (S$827.4 million) for its second half ended Dec 31, from 3.6 billion yuan in the corresponding year-ago period. This brought its FY2025 earnings to 8.6 billion yuan, 30.2 per cent higher than the previous year’s 6.6 billion yuan.

Its revenue rose 15.8 per cent on the year to 15.6 billion yuan for the half-year, and climbed 7.4 per cent to 28.5 billion yuan for the full-year. The topline growth was fuelled by the progressive construction of vessels secured at higher newbuild prices.

CGSI in a Friday report maintained its “add” call for Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, citing the group’s earnings growth – backed by a US$22.4 billion orderbook – and an attractive nine times forward price-to-earnings ratio.

The brokerage raised its target price for the counter from S$4.51 to S$4.95, a premium of 14.1 per cent above the stock’s Friday closing price.

CGSI analyst Lim Siew Khee noted that the shipbuilder’s final dividend of S$0.20 per share for FY2025, an increase from S$0.12 per share in FY2024, implies a 50 per cent payout ratio which is a “positive surprise”.

Similarly, DBS said on Thursday that it would likely maintain its “buy” call on the counter, with its S$3.80 target price under review.

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Yangzijiang Shipbuilding posts 24.6% rise in H2 profit to 4.5 billion yuan

DBS analyst Ho Pei Hwa noted that the stock’s FY2025 net profit beat consensus by 3 to 4 per cent, and that the roughly US$290 million worth of new orders secured by the group in December brings its full-year order wins to around US$2.5 billion.