KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 21): YTL Corp Bhd rose as much as four sen or 3% as investors bought shares of the diversified entity to be entitled to its dividend. 

The stock rose despite the company reporting a drop in fourth quarter and full-year profit and revenue from a year earlier.

YTL Corp's (fundamental: 1.2; valuation: 1.4) share price reached its highest so far today at
RM1.52. At 11.20am, the stock was traded at RM1.51 with some five million shares changing hands. 

At RM1.51, YTL Corp, which is involved in the cement, property and electricity-generation businesses, has a market capitalisation of RM15.73 billion.

The FBM KLCI fell 2.56 points or 0.2% at 11:32am to 1,574.85.

Yesterday, YTL Corp reported that net profit declined to RM298.93 million in its fourth quarter ended June 30, 2015 from RM354.07 million a year earlier. This came on lower revenue at RM4.12 billion from RM4.61 billion.

Full-year net profit stood at RM1.07 billion or 10.27 sen a share, down from RM1.55 billion a year earlier. Revenue was also lower at RM16.82 billion from RM19.27 billion.

Despite the weaker financials, YTL Corp plans to pay a dividend of 9.5 sen a share for the  
the quarter in review. 

YTL Corp said its shares would trade ex-dividend this October 5 while the payment date falls on October 23.

Today, Affin Hwang Investment Bank Bhd said YTL Corp's full-year net profit of RM1.07 billion came in below the research firm's and consensus forecast.

In a note today, Affin Hwang said YTL Corp's profit accounted for 91% and 84% of Affin Hwang's and consensus full-year estimates respectively.

"While taxation was seasonally lower as expected, YTL Corp missed expectations due to weak results across the board," Affin Hwang said. 

Affin Hwang said it maintained its "hold" rating on YTL Corp shares but with a lower target price (TP) of RM1.54 from RM 1.72 previously.

The lower TP followed a downgrade of between 6% and 7% in Affin Hwang's FY16 and FY17 earnings estimate for YTL Corp.

(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.)