KUALA LUMPUR (May 12): SAM Engineering & Equipment (M) Bhd (SAM Malaysia)'s counter, which has been on the rise over the last four trading days, was up as much as 9.3% to a multi-year high of RM4.11 today.

At 3.38pm, the stock gave up part of its gains to trade at RM4.07, still up 31 sen or 8.2%, with 461,800 shares done.

SAM Malaysia (fundamental: 2.5; valuation: 2.6), which was picked as a Stock With Momentum by The Edge Research yesterday, was the fourth largest gainer across the exchange at the point of writing. At the current price, it has a market capitalisation of RM316.94 million.

SAM Malaysia's trading pattern has been volatile recently; it dipped to a low of RM2.30 on Dec 16 last year before climbing to a high of RM4.11 today. Prior to being picked as a Stock With Momentum, the counter had risen as much as 26.6%.

In a research note published in The Edge Financial Daily today, The Edge Research said SAM Malaysia has a debt-free balance sheet with cash of RM82.8 million or 28.1% of its market capitalisation.

"Return on equity (ROE) ranged between 8.3% to 11% from 2011 to 2014. Dividends totalled 17.25 sen per share in 2014, giving it a net yield of 4.6%," The Edge Research noted.

SAM provides precision machining equipment integration and automation solutions, primarily for the aerospace and equipment (HDD and semiconductor) industries.

The company had, in 2012, spent RM146 million to acquire Avitron Pte Ltd, a manufacturer of aircraft components and precision engineering parts.

Its major shareholder is Singapore Aerospace Manufacturing (SAM) Ptd Ltd with a stakeholding of 74.18%.

In the third quarter ended March 31, 2015 (3QFY15), SAM Malaysia posted a net profit of RM11.55 million, up 97.1% on-year from RM5.86 million, due primarily to favourable foreign exchange movements.

For the cumulative nine months (9MFY15), its net profit grew 3.72% to RM19.25 million against RM18.56 million in 9MFY14. Revenue was, however, lower by 2.42% at RM319.03 million versus RM326.95 million in the previous year.

(Notes: 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.)