[ET Net News Agency, 14 July 2020] CLSA raised its target price for Lenovo Group
(00992) to HK$7.2 from HK$4.5 and upgraded its rating to "buy" from "underperform".
The research house said Lenovo's share underperformance year-to-date should price in an
FY2021 EPS decline, while its potential server share gains and strong service growth may
drive an EPS rebound in FY2022 and consensus upgrade.
CLSA added that the market largely overlooked the faster Device-as-a-Service (DaaS)
adoption by enterprises during and after Covid-19, given the need for more agile IT
infrastructure. For Lenovo, CLSA's simulation suggests DaaS will lead to 30-60% operating
profit and about 1ppt operating profit margin improvement, as software/service has 1.5-2x
higher operating profit margin versus hardware.
CLSA raised its 2021/22 EPS estimates 13%/26%. (KL)