[ET Net News Agency, 18 July 2018] Daiwa Research expects soft 2Q results from AAC
Technologies (02018) on customer inventory adjustments, but it views this as an
opportunity for long-term investors to accumulate the stock given Daiwa's strong earnings
growth forecasts for 2H 2018-2019 on favourable trends.
It reiterated its "buy" rating and HK$160 target price.
Despite the likely increasing contribution from China customers on more projects win,
Daiwa forecast AAC's 2Q revenue to remain soft at CNY4.4bn (-6% QoQ; -2% YoY), dragged
down by the weak demand for iPhone X and downward order revisions for Galaxy S9.
Due to lower utilisation and pricing pressure, Daiwa estimated its 2Q gross margin to
remain at a low level of 37.8%. Overall, it projected AAC to record EPS of CNY0.80 (-14%
QoQ; -9% YoY) in 2Q, lower than the consensus estimate by 10%. (KL)