Quick take: Hartalega shares rise on earnings beat

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KUALA LUMPUR: Hartalega Holdings Bhd’s shares climbed in early trade Wednesday after it reported earnings that beat market expectations.

The glove maker climbed three sen, or 0.44% to RM6.83 amid a weak broader market at 9.13am.

Hartalega posted a record-high net profit of RM2.26bil in its first quarter ended June 30, 2021 (1QFY22).

Its pre-tax profit for the quarter increased to RM2.88bil while revenue grew to RM3.9bil.

MIDF Research said Hartalega’s 1QFY22 net profit of RM2.26bil was above the house and consensus expectations as it made up 90.2% and 58.0% of respective full year estimates.

It said the better-than-expected results were largely attributed to higher than expected average selling price (ASP) as well as utilisation rate during the quarter.

MIDF expects the coming quarters to be weaker due to more intense competition, which is likely to drive ASP lower on-quarter.

On top of that, the research house said the stubbornly high number of new infections in the country that led to more movement restrictions could adversely impact its production volume for 2QFY22.

“That said, we understand that more than 90% of the company’s employees have received their first dose of vaccination, which puts the company on track to normalise operations later on.

“Hence, we expect better utilisation rate and improving operational efficiency in 3QFY22,” it said.

MIDF has revised its FY22E earnings +59.6% to RM3.99bil in view of the 1QFY22 results that came in above its expectation.

It has also upgraded Hartalega to “buy” with an unchanged target price of RM8.40.

Kenanga Research said 1QFY22 PATAMI of RM2.26bil came in above expectations at 54%/59% of the house/consensus full-year forecasts due to higher-than-expected volume sales.

“We raised our FY22E net profit by 3% after raising our volume sales forecast. However, we lower FY23E net profit by 9% as we lower our utilisation rate estimate,” it said.



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