Stock Name: ANNJOO
Company Name: ANN JOO RESOURCES BHD
Research House: RHB

KUALA LUMPUR: RHB Research has upgraded ANN JOO RESOURCES BHD [] from market perform to Outperform and raised its net profit forecasts.

The research house said on Wednesday, Aug 4 that Ann Joo's 1HFY12/10 net profit of RM112.4 million came in above expectations at 68.8% to 70.5% of its and the full-year market estimates. The key variance versus its forecast came largely from higher-than-expected selling prices.

Ann Joo declared a first interim DPS of 6 sen (less 25% tax), which translates to a gross yield of 2.4%.

'We are keeping our full-year gross DPS forecast of 24 sen equivalent to 71.2% payout ratio and 9.4% yield,' it said.

RHB Research said it was raising its FY12/10-12 net profit forecasts by 4.5-10.5%, largely to reflect higher selling prices.

'Correspondingly, our fair value is upgraded by 3.6% from RM2.74 to RM2.84 based on 9x revised FY12/10 fully-diluted EPS of 31.6 sen. Upgrade to Outperform,' it said.