Share buybacks can be a sensible thing to do when a company’s shares are undervalued, and the firm doesn’t see any other need for the cash that it has. In this article, let’s look at three companies that have repurchased their shares thus far during the week, as of market open today. Keppel REIT (SGX: K71U) Keppel REIT is a commercial real estate investment trust (REIT) that has interests in nine premium office assets located in Singapore and Australia. On 3, 4, 5 and 6 December 2018, the REIT’s manager bought back a total of 5,575,200 units at a price range of between S$1.16 and S$1.18 apiece. The total cost came up to around S$6.51 million. Keppel REIT units last traded at S$1.19 each on Thursday. The price translates to a price-to-book (PB) ratio of 0.8 and a distribution

Is the worst of the trade conflict finally behind us? On Monday, stock markets in Asia reacted positively to the announcement that the United States and China have agreed not to impose further tariffs on each other for 90 days. China is hoping that the US will remove tariffs imposed in July, while the White House said that talks will take place to resolve specific US complaints such as “forced technology transfer” within the next 90 days. If the trade conflict does resolve, it will certainly be good news for investors around the world. Lower trade barriers mean more efficient use of resources and larger markets for companies around the world in a time where trade has become a major part of the world economy. While the lifting of trade tariffs do not directly impact Singapore,

Last month, 29 companies bought back 39 million shares or units for a total amount of S$108.8 million, according to a recent report released by the Singapore Exchange. The latest buyback amount is 82% up from October 2018 and almost thrice that of November 2017’s figure of S$39 million. The top ten companies with the most significant share buyback amounts in November 2018 were DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05), United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (SGX: O39), SATS Ltd (SGX: S58), Keppel REIT (SGX: K71U), Olam International Ltd (SGX: O32), Singapore Post Limited (SGX: S08), Stamford Land Corporation Ltd (SGX: H07), Sembcorp Industries Limited (SGX: U96) and Lum Chang Holdings Limited (SGX: L19). The companies spent a total of S$104.7 million f

In Singapore, the three major listed banks are DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (SGX: O39) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11). After peaking in April, all three banks have seen their share price fall by more than 20% from their respective peaks. The recent decline in the banks’ shares might draw some interest from investors. In particular, investors might want to know which bank among the three is the one they should consider investing in now. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. As such, I would like put all three banks side-to-side for a direct comparison. In this article, I will compare the recent quarterly earnings performance of the trio of banks. The objective is to find out which bank performed the best financially. The showdow

Haw Par Corporation Ltd (SGX: H02) is the maker of the Tiger Balm brand of ointment. Other than its healthcare arm, it also has strategic stakes in UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11). At Haw Par’s share price of S$12.57 currently, the company has a trailing dividend yield of 2.0%, which is low for income investors. Is there room for the company to increase its dividends in the coming years? Let’s find out by using Haw Par’s free cash flow figures and other metrics. Tiger’s clues A company’s free cash flow shows how much cash the firm has to pay out dividends to shareholders, buy back shares, make acquisitions, or strengthen its balance sheet. To calculate a company’s free cash flow, we can take its operating cash flow (typicall

The three major banks in Singapore, DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05), United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11) and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Limited (SGX: O39), have each reported higher interest income and net profits for the first nine of months of the year. And yet, each of their shares have declined substantially year-to-date. DBS, UOB and OCBC share prices are down by 9.3% 11.5%, and 13.2% respectively. So why are their stocks down despite reporting higher earnings so far this year? Here are some possible fundamental reasons why market participants may have been selling down bank shares this year. Mortgage book growth slower than expected due to additional cooling measures Earlier this year, the Singapore government imposed additional property cooling measures to ease the nearly 10% s

Haw Par Corporation Ltd (SGX: H02) owns the Tiger Balm brand of ointment. Other than its healthcare business, it also owns strategic stakes in UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11). Shares in Haw Par have fallen by some 14% since the peak seen in early-May 2018. Due to the dwindling share price, there could be some opportunity with the company. However, before a concrete decision can be made to invest, one has to look at its historical financial performance to understand if it has a strong business. With that, let’s learn more about Haw Par by looking at its critical historical financial figures. Revenue and profit We will start with the income statement. This statement, also known as profit and loss statement, shows us how much revenue a company brings in

Since their respective peaks in May 2018, shares in DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (SGX: O39) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11) have lost more than 19% each. For instance, DBS shares have plummeted some 25% to close at S$23.20 apiece yesterday. Given the poor share performance by the banking trio, it begs the question: Which bank has the most enticing valuation to hold for the long-term? To help answer that, I would be comparing the valuation of the banks against that of the SPDR STI ETF (SGX: ES3), an exchange-traded fund which can be taken as a proxy for the Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI). The table below shows the valuation comparison of the banks against the SPDR STI ETF (the best values among the banks are in bold):Source: S&P

Its earnings season again. Given many companies reported their results in the past few weeks, I thought it may be useful to summarise the results of some of these companies in three different buckets – positive, negative, mixed. This will give readers a quick overview of the performances of these companies. With that, I will focus on two of those companies that delivered growth in their latest results. United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11) is the first company that we will look at in this article. As a quick introduction, UOB is one of the three main local banks listed in Singapore. For the third quarter ended 30 September 2018, UOB reported that total income grew by 8% from a year ago to S$2.3 billion. Net interest income (income from loans) grew 14% year-on-year to S$1.6 billion, driv

UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) reported a respectable set of results for its third quarter against a backdrop of a difficult operating environment for property stocks due to the Singapore government’s cooling measures. UOL’s stock price has seen a pull-back of over 30% year-to-date. UOL is a Singapore listed property company with over S$20 billion of assets under management. The property group has its wings spread across many aspects of the property market such as property development, property investments and hotels operations. Here are the important points to take note of from UOL’s latest earnings report. The key numbers UOL’s revenue for the quarter was down 3% to S$523.8 million while gross profit grew 40% to S$234.9 million. Looking at the breakdown, the property devel

Insurance companies typically make money in two ways. Firstly, it can earn underwriting profits from its core insurance business. Secondly, the insurance firm can use the money it collects from premiums (called “float”) to generate investment income. As interest rates rise, insurance companies can profit from higher investment income from its float. With that in mind, I have decided to take a look at the three insurance companies listed in Singapore, namely United Overseas Insurance Limited (SGX: U13), Great Eastern Holding Limited (SGX: G07), and Singapore Reinsurance Corporation Ltd (SGX: S49) to see which insurance firm has the most profitable insurance business. The combined ratio The combined ratio is a commonly used metric to assess whether an insurance company is makin

I’m a value investor. As such, I like to search for companies that are trading at low valuations. A list of stocks that are near their respective 52-week lows is a good place to start my search for a good reason. These are the stocks that are either unloved or beaten down by the market. However, some of these stocks could turn out to be bargains compared to their actual economic worth. That’s because market participants can at times react too negatively to certain companies that have sound long-term prospects but have experienced some short-term stumbles. I often screen for stocks that are trading near their 52-week lows around once every week. There are many different stocks that pop up on my screen each time I run it. With that in mind, here are three companies that have turned u

United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11), or UOB, is one of the three major banks based out of Singapore. At the current price of S$24.64 (at the time of writing), United Overseas Bank’s shares are just 3% higher than the 52-week intra-day low price of S$23.95. This raises a question: Is United Overseas Bank cheap now? This question is important because if the firm’s shares are cheap, it might be a good opportunity for investors. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. However, we can still get some insights by comparing UOB’s current valuations with the market’s valuation. The three valuation metrics I will focus on are the price-to-book (PB) ratio, price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, and dividend yield. I will be using the SPDR STI ETF (SGX: ES3) as a proxy for the market; the SPDR STI ETF

On 9 November 2018, Haw Par Corporation Ltd (SGX: H02) released its 2018 third-quarter earnings update. Most people in Singapore would have come across Haw Par because of its Tiger Balm ointment, which has a long history and is also globally well-known. Aside from this healthcare business, Haw Par also owns strategic stakes in both UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11), as well as commercial and industrial properties for rental income in both Singapore and Malaysia. The company also has a small leisure division which runs Underwater World Pattaya in Thailand. Here is a summary of Haw Par’s latest results: 1. Revenue increased by 14.2% for the reporting quarter, up from S$53.3 million to S$61.0 million. This was attributed mainly to a rise in the sale of

United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11) is one of the three big banks in Singapore. Two weeks ago, UOB announced its 2018 third quarter earnings update. Here are five positive things that I think investors should know about the bank’s latest results: 1. UOB’s total income for 2018’s third quarter grew 8% year-on-year to S$2.33 billion, led by loan volume growth, a higher net interest margin (from 1.79% to 1.81%), and higher net fee income. In other words, there was broad-based growth for the bank. 2. Net interest income jumped by 14% year-on-year to S$1.6 billion due to broad-based loan growth (up 9%) and the aforementioned higher net interest margin. 3. Total allowances fell by 57% from a year ago to S$95 million due to the absence of specific allowances set aside for non-

The Wall Street extended its rebound on the back of oversold conditions and solid corporate earnings, after sharp selloff of stocks last week. Adding on to investors’ woes, Trump had earlier threatened to impose tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports if talks next month with Beijing during the G20 summit failed to yield any meaningful results to ease the trade frictions. In a U-turn, the mercurial President then changed tack when he said that he held “very good conversations with Xi”. Over the last two weeks, Dow Jones Industrial Average remained relatively unchanged closing at 25,380.74. Likewise, the China market moved higher despite October PMI coming in below expectation at 50.2. Nonetheless, rising yields and persisting RMB weakness continued to pressure the stock market. Mean

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Limited (SGX: O39) or OCBC is one of the 3 main local banks listed in Singapore, along with United Overseas Bank Ltd (SGX: U11) and DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05). Recently, OCBC announced its 2018 third-quarter earnings update. Here are five positive things that I think investors should know about its earnings release. But first, let’s run through the company’s numbers. A quick overview Here’s a quick summary of the key financial metrics from the earnings update. Source: OCBC’s Result Presentation Overall, we can see that most of the key figures have increased on a year-on-year basis. Here are the five points worth mentioning. Net interest income grew 9% year-on-year driven by improvement in net interest margin and loan growth. Moreover, the growt

At the time of writing, the Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI) is up 20 points, or 0.7%, to 2,986. It could well be heading back towards the psychological level of 3,000. The Singapore stock market may be taking a cue from the US stock market. Broad market indices in the US such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 rose 1.8% and 1.6% respectively, on Tuesday. However, I’m not all that excited about the rise in the stock market right now. You should not too, unless you are looking to sell all your stocks and grow your money for the long-term in another way. Wealth builder The stock market has generally given higher returns than other assets such as bonds, gold, properties, and of course, our regular savings account. That’s why most of us should be investing in the stock

The local stock market bellwether, the Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI), slipped 3% or 90 points for the week to close at 2,972 on Friday. Almost all of 2017’s and 2018’s index gains have been wiped off thus far. The index last ended at around this level in early 2017. Of the 30 index components, 21 were in the red, while the remaining nine were in the green. The biggest loser of the STI was Keppel Corporation Limited (SGX: BN4); the conglomerate’s shares tumbled 8.1% to S$6.10. Keppel Corp announced its earnings for the third quarter of 2018 last week. The conglomerate saw huge declines of over 14% each in its top-line and bottom-line. To know more about the latest financial results, you can check out the earnings coverage here. Another poor performer during the week was United Over

Some solid numbers from United Overseas Bank (SGX: U11) has set the bar for Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (SGX: O39), which is pencilled in for third-quarter numbers next week. In August, OCBC said second-quarter profits jumped 16% to S$1.21 billion. But it warned that the operating environment is becoming increasingly challenging. It also said that it was watchful of the severe implications to the global economy and financial markets from the escalating trade and political tensions. Venture Corporation (SGX: V03) surprised the market last time with a 40% jump in second-quarter profits. The electronics manufacturer also caught the market off guard with the announcement of an interim dividend. It typically only pays one dividend at the end of the year. But in its August announcement