KUALA LUMPUR, (Sept 15): Shares of Poh Huat Resources Bhd advanced as much as 5.2% today in morning session today, after the company announced its third quarter results yesterday (Sept 14).

At 10.27am, Poh Huat shares gained 4.14% or 12 sen to RM3.02, with 673,000 shares done.

To recap, Poh Huat's net profit almost tripled to RM10.49 million or 9.96 sen per share for the third quarter ended July 31, 2015 (3QFY15), from RM3.88 million or 3.64 sen per share in the previous year.

Revenue for the quarter grew 26% to RM112.50 million, from RM89.12 million a year earlier.

Poh Huat announced a second interim dividend of three sen per share for the financial year ending Oct 31, 2015 (FY15).

In its filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, the furniture maker attributed the improved performance to higher shipment from its Vietnamese operations, which was significantly higher in line with the stronger recovery in the employment and housing market in the United States.

Besides that, the strengthening of the US dollar had also improved margins for its Vietnamese and Malaysian operations. The group recorded a foreign exchange gain of RM3.4 million during the quarter.

For the cumulative nine-month period to July 31 (9MFY15), Poh Huat's net profit almost doubled to RM23.33 million, from RM12.75 million in the year before; while revenue climbed 17% to RM313.75 million, from RM269.06 million.

Meanwhile, TA Research in a company update today said there is no change in its earnings forecasts and that it maintains its Buy rating on Poh Huat stock, with an unchanged target price of RM3.64.

"The 9MFY15 net profit of RM23.3 million came in within our expectation," it added.

The research house said a second interim dividend of 3 sen/share was declared, bringing 9MFY15 dividend payout to 6 sen/share.

YoY, 3QFY15 net profit jumped 173.8% to RM10.6 million, as revenue increased by 26.2% to RM112.5 million, and PBT margin expanded by 5.9% pts to 10.8%, it added, stating the better results were mainly due to stronger US dollaer versus the ringgit, improved efficiency and economies of scale, and higher shipment from the group’s Vietnam operations as demand from US continued to improve, against lower shipment in the corresponding period last year due to anti-China riot.

TA Research also noted that QoQ, net profit surged 134.7% due to seasonality, higher orders, favourable forex, better efficiency and economies of scale.

(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.)