KUALA LUMPUR (May 25): P.I.E Industrial Bhd’s net profit grew 12.4% to RM10.25 million or 13.35 sen per share for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015, against RM9.12 million or 11.88 sen per share a year ago on higher margin of product mix and gain from foreign currency exchange.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia, PIE said that the increase of the profit before tax was mainly due to the higher margin of products mix, higher gain from foreign currency exchange transactions and reversal of slow moving inventories provision.

“However, the increase in profit was partly offset by lower revenue achieved and higher provision of doubtful debts,” the company said.

Meanwhile, PIE's (fundamental: 2.5; valuation: 1.4) revenue contracted 29% to RM111.07 million from RM157.37 million last year.

“The decrease was mainly attributable to lower demand on electronic manufacturing products from existing customers but partly offset with higher demand on raw wire and cable products and higher revenue achieved by wire harness activities and trading activities,” PIE said in a filing to Bursa Malaysia today.

According to TheEdge Research, PIE has a fundamental scored of 2.5, indicating the company has a strong balance sheet. The company has cash pile of nearly RM132 million. In fact, it is on a net cash of RM98.5 million or RM1.28 per share.

The stock is trading at price-earnings ratio of almost 13 times.

PIE’s core business includes fabrication of moulds and dies, PCB assembly using precision SMT, plastic injection moulding, clean room product assembly and testing of electronic products as well as manufacturing and assembly of cable and wire.

Moving forward, it said, the group will continue to strengthen its vertical integration of manufacturing capability and expand sufficient manufacturing capacity to meet more outsourcing orders from new and existing customers.

“Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the Group anticipate to achieve satisfactory performance for the year 2015,” it said.

(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.)