This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 10, 2019

HOMERITZ Corp Bhd (+ve)
HOMERITZ Corp Bhd (fundamental: 1.95/3, valuation: 1.8/3) saw the trading volume of its shares surge 30 times to 7.54 million yesterday, from the 242,475 average shares traded seen in the past 200 days.

Its share price closed 4.5 sen or 7.2% higher at its 17-month high of 67 sen yesterday.

On Monday, the furniture manufacturer announced a first interim dividend of two sen per share — up from one sen last year — after reporting a 52% year-on-year jump in its net profit for the third quarter ended May 31, 2019 to RM7.01 million from RM4.62 million, despite revenue slipping 5.7% to RM37.57 million from RM39.84 million, thanks to better margins, which helped offset the lower revenue from a decrease in volume sold.

This led to its year-to-date net profit rising 19.2% year-on-year to RM17.66 million from RM14.81 million, despite revenue dropping 10% to RM114.05 million from RM126.29 million.