[ET Net News Agency, 24 August 2020] J.P. Morgan raised its target price for Meituan
Dianping (03690) to HK$225 from HK$200 and maintained its "neutral" rating.
The research house said Meituan's 2Q profitability substantially beat market expectation
(record-high 11% net profit margin versus consensus/JPM of merely breakeven), with
strength from all three business segments.
While such a strong margin beat is certainly positive to near-term stock sentiment, JPM
believes the margin beat is driven more by temporary tailwinds as a result of COVID-19 and
less by structural cost structure improvement. It expects most of the tailwinds will
disappear in 2021.
As such, JPM continues to believe the stock is fundamentally fairly valued with positive
share price action to the print in the near term. It only increased its 2021/22 EPS
forecasts by 5%/3%, despite a substantial profit beat in 2Q. (KL)