Jefferies Research trimmed its target price for Xtep International Holdings (01368) to HK$4.5 from HK$4.8, and maintained its "buy" rating.
The research house revised down 2017 revenue by 9.8% to RMB5.7bn (+5.4% yoy), driven mainly by flat growth in the offline channel and 30% growth in e-commerce. We expects GP margin to increase slightly by 0.3ppt yoy to 43.5% in 2017.
Among the domestic players, Jefferies favours Xtep's price positioning, which could face less competition compared to higher-priced peers. Jefferies believes its strategy on sports events, functional products and internet could bear fruit in the medium term, while benefiting from the rising popularity of running in the near term.