[ET Net News Agency, 4 June 2020] J.P. Morgan has hosted a virtual group investor
meeting with Tencent's (00700) management recently.
The research house came away more positive on Tencent's mid-to-long-term growth
potential due to (1) its increasingly stronger value proposition to brands and merchants
as an online distribution channel, (2) ample upside to fintech development from a product
innovation perspective, and (3) fundamentally improving ads infrastructure after
restructuring in 2018.
Tencent's share price went up by 4% in the past month, broadly in line with the MSCI
China index but underperformed large-cap China Internet peers (Alibaba, NetEase, JD, PDD,
Meituan, Baidu, etc.). JPM attributed the share price weakness to management's cautious
tone regarding near-term business momentum and lack of near-term catalysts.
JPM believes Tencent's new game launches after its 1Q earnings results announcement will
continue to drive upside surprise to the top line and the bottom line in the remainder of
2020. It maintained its "overweight" rating on the tech giant, with a target price of
HK$550. (KL)