KUALA LUMPUR (June 13): Bermaz Auto Bhd (BAuto) rose 3% in early trade today after its net profit for the fourth quarter ended April 30, 2018 came in 2.6 times higher at RM57.19 million compared with RM22.21 million in the previous year, thanks to higher domestic sales of its well-received CX-5 and CX-9 models that were launched in the last quarter of 2017.

At 9.14am, BAuto rose 7 sen to RM2.40 with 497,100 shares done.

This brought earnings per share for the quarter to 4.93 sen from 1.93 sen. Revenue grew 61% year-on-year to RM570.59 million from RM354.03 million.

The group has recommended a fourth interim dividend of 2.3 sen per share and a special dividend of 2.7 sen per share, totalling a payout of 5 sen per share, which will be payable on July 26.

For its full year, net profit rose 19% y-o-y to RM140.07 million from RM117.65 million, while revenue rose 20% y-o-y to RM1.99 billion from RM1.66 billion.

On prospects, the group said profitability of its associate Mazda Malaysia is expected to rise with the increase in volume of cars to be exported to the ASEAN region, coupled with high demand in the domestic market.

Meanwhile, PublicInvest Research has maintained its “Outperform” rating on BAuto at RM2.33 with a higher target price of RM2.57 (from RM2.41) and said BAuto recorded a 4QFY18 net profit of RM57.2 million (+158% y-o-y), bringing its full year FY18 net profit to RM140.1 million (+18% y-o-y).

In a note today, the research house said it was slightly above house expectations, accounting for 109%, but within consensus’ at 100% of full year estimates.

It said the discrepancy was mainly due to better-than-expected contribution from its associate of Mazda Malaysia (MMSB) owing to increase in production volume for the new CX-5 model (+40% y-o-y) for both the domestic and export markets.

PublicInvest said the improvement in earnings was also due to higher sales recorded by the domestic operations and strengthening of the ringgit against yen.

“This however partially off-set by lower contribution from the Philippine operation on the back of weakening peso against yen.

“We maintain our earnings forecast and roll-over our PE-valuation to FY20 EPS. As a results, our Outperform call for BAuto is retained but at a higher target price of RM2.57 (previously RM2.41), pegged to 13x FY20 EPS.

“BAuto declared a fourth interim dividend of 2.30 sen and a special dividend of 2.70 sen, bringing its full year dividend per share to 10.40 sen (FY17: 11.65 sen),” it said.