Venture Corporation - RHB Invest 2023-08-08: Poor Near-Term Visibility; Downgrade To NEUTRAL

• Downgrade Venture Corp to NEUTRAL from Buy, with new S$14.40 target price from S$18.26, 4% upside from the current Venture Corp's share price.
• - Read this at SGinvestors.io -
• Although Venture Corp's valuation is compelling, at -1 standard deviation of its historical mean, visibility of customer demand and earnings outlook remain weak. Given the soft outlook, we now peg our target price to 14x blended FY23-24F from 16x.

Venture Corp's 1H23 earnings below expectations.

• - Read this at SGinvestors.io -
• While gross margin held stable at 25%, operating margin of 10.1% missed our 10.7% expectations due to higher energy costs and staff costs as a percentage of sales. Earnings as a result met 43% of our full year forecasts.
• Venture Corp's net cash however, grew from S$2.78 to S$3.08 per share. An interim dividend of S$0.25 amounting to a payout ratio of 52% was declared, in line with expectations. See Venture Corp's dividend date.

Anticipate soft near term outlook.

• Read more at SGinvestors.io.

Above is an excerpt from a report by RHB Securities Research.
Clients of RHB may be the first to access the full PDF report @ https://www.rhbtradesmart.com/.

Read also RHB's most recent report:
2025-02-25 Venture Corporation - 2H24 Showing Recovery; Keep BUY.

Previous report by RHB:
2024-11-11 Venture Corporation - Soft Demand Delaying 2H Recovery; Maintain BUY.

Price targets by 3 other brokers at Venture Corp Target Prices.

Listing of research reports at Venture Corp Analyst Reports.

Relevant links:
Venture Corp Share Price History,
Venture Corp Announcements,
Venture Corp Dividend Payout Dates & Corporate Actions,
Venture Corp News