KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 13): Only World Group Holdings Bhd (OWG)'s shares spiked by as much as 10% today, just days after CIMB Research said the stock of the food and beverage and hospitality provider could be worth sixfold in five years' time.

At 4.01pm, OWG, which CIMB said has the highest long-term upside potential among stocks under its coverage, was 15 sen or 6.52% higher at RM2.45 after some 1.61 million shares were traded, a three-month high volume. Earlier, the counter touched RM2.53.

"We like OWG for its captive market business model in Genting Highlands and Komtar. This superior long-term economic moat will drive explosive earnings growth over the next few years, in our view, as the new 20th Century Fox theme park and Komtar comes on-stream and matures," said CIMB Research's head equity research Terence Wong in an Oct 9 strategy note.

According to him, OWG's shares could be worth RM8.67 apiece by the end of 2018, premised on its almost "monopolistic" presence in Genting Highlands' food and beverage services, plus the incrementing demand for its attractions, such as Escape Room.

CIMB Research has set a 2020 target price of RM14.66, or about 5.95 times OWG's last traded price.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)