[ET Net News Agency, 1 December 2020] Macquarie Research lowered its target price for
Meituan (03690) to HK$287 from HK$394 and downgraded its rating to "neutral" from "buy".
The research house said Meituan's long-term outlook is healthy, but the current market
cap of US$240bn already captures a US$55bn opportunity in the foodservice distribution
market; a business that Meituan has refocused on as a strategic priority from July.
With theoretical upside baked into the stock, the company will need to show it can
really achieve such a growth trajectory embedded into expectation in both stock and
consensus earnings. Macquarie noted that investment will likely precede returns for coming
quarters. It lowered its FY2021 and FY2022 non-IFRS EPS forecasts by 13% and 8%. (KL)