KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 26): Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Keluarga Bhd's third quarter ended Sept 30, 2018 (3QFY18) results, which saw a 73% jump in net profit to RM83.96 million, came in above expectations, said RHB Research Institute Sdn Bhd.

"This was above our and street expectations, at 87% and 90% of full-year forecasts [respectively]," it said in a note today. RHB has maintained its "buy" call on the stock with a raised target price of RM4.40 (from RM4.36 previously).

RHB said it has revised the group's earnings upwards by 10% and 7% for FY18 and FY19 respectively, to account largely for stronger gross earned contributions growth in both the general and family takaful fund.

"We now expect the group to register a strong +26% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in FY18 before tapering to 6.3% y-o-y growth in FY19," it said.

RHB noted, however, that the FY19 earnings growth forecast is below management's guidance for high single-digit growth.

"We remain wary of a slowdown in the broader-based economy and given that insurers under our coverage have all guided for stiffer competition ahead amidst a shrinking pie," it said.

Yesterday Syarikat Takaful said 3QFY18 net profit rose to RM83.96 million from RM48.57 million a year ago due to higher net wakalah fee income.

Gross earned contributions were up 38.5% to RM613.96 million in 3QFY18.

Meanwhile revenue rose 36.26% y-o-y to RM648.95 million, from RM476.24 million, attributable to higher sales generated by the family and general takaful segments.

At 9.59am, Syarikat Takaful rose 3.51% or 13 sen to RM3.83 with 80,900 shares traded.