KUALA LUMPUR (March 13): Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) received mixed views from analysts after the group reported February 2018 passenger traffic grew 7.1% to 10.07 million passengers, from 9.4 million a year earlier.

MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd wrote in its aviation sector report today that MIDF continues to like MAHB as a proxy to Malaysia’s resilient inbound and outbound travel industry.
 
"Considering overall industry’s demand to remain robust in 2QFY18, we continue to like MAHB as a proxy to Malaysia’s resilient inbound/outbound travel industry, being the largest airport operator in Malaysia. As such, we recommend investors to accumulate MAHB with a BUY call and target price (TP) of RM9.80," MIDF said. 

At Bursa Malaysia, MAHB shares were traded at RM8.87 at 11:15am. 

TA Securities Holdings Bhd wrote in a note on MAHB today that TA maintained its Sell call on MAHB shares, with an unchanged TP of RM8.61.

"We continue to believe MAHB is trading at an expensive forward PE of 55x, given its small earnings base and tiny dividend yield. MAHB’s earnings prospect is encouraging on the back of: 1) increase in capacity by Malaysian airline operators, especially AirAsia; 2) potential increase in non-aeronautical contribution, typically from duty-free sales and rental income; and 3) development within (KLIA) Aeropolis," TA said.