KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 14): YSP Southeast Asia Holdings Bhd (YSP) shares jumped 5.71% in early trade this morning after CIMB IB Research maintained its “Add” rating on YSP at RM2.80 with a higher target price of RM4 (from RM3.46) and said YSP’s 1H18 core net profit of RM19.3 million beat house and Bloomberg consensus expectations at 67% and 64% of the respective full-year forecasts .

At 9.17am, YSP rose 16 sen to RM2.96 with 96,700 shares done.

In a note Aug 13, the research house said the stronger-than-expected growth (37.5% y-o-y) in 1H18 core net profit was due to: i)more profitable product mix, ii) better cost control, and iii) higher economies of scale.

“On a q-o-q basis, 2Q18 core net profit fell 18.6% due to: i) high base effect from a seasonally-strong 1Q, ii) slower domestic sales, and iii) lower cost efficiencies.

“We raise our FY18-20F EPS by 5.0-11.9% to account for: i) more profitable sales mix, ii) higher economies of scales, and iii) increased domestic sales.

“Maintain Add, with a higher target price of RM4.00 (15.9x CY19F P/E),” it said.