Venture Corporation Ltd (SGX: V03) is an electronics manufacturing services provider. At its current price of S$16.54 (at the time of writing), Venture’s shares are just 4% higher than its 52-week intraday low price of S$15.83. This raises a question: Is Venture 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. Having said that, we can still get some insights by comparing Venture’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 is an exchange-traded

Singapore’s Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI), which hosts 30 of the largest companies in Singapore, has fallen by over 8% since the start of the year. But it’s not all doom and gloom. If we lengthen our horizon from months to years, we will see that a good number of STI companies have actually done quite well. In fact, a recent SGX report revealed that the top five performing companies in the index had returned over 77% on average over the past three years. Let’s have a look at the select quintet (data as of 30 August 2018): 1. Venture Corporation Ltd (SGX: V03) shares has delivered a stunning 154% return over the last three years. Founded in 1984 as a global electronics provider, Venture Corporation now sees itself as a global provider of technology solutions, products

The Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI), which tracks the performance of the top 30 largest and most liquid companies listed in Singapore, ended August in the negative territory. For the month, the index tumbled 3.2%, or around 106 points, to 3,213.5. Of the 30 index components, 21 were in the red while the remaining nine were in the green. The top three winners of the Straits Times Index were Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings Ltd (SGX: BS6), Venture Corporation Ltd (SGX: V03) and CapitaLand Limited (SGX: C31).Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence Yangzijiang reported a strong set of financial results for the second quarter ended 30 June 2018. As highlighted in my previous article here, revenue more than doubled to RMB 8.0 billion from RMB 3.8 billion a year ago while net profit climbed 3

There will be a number of companies going ex-dividend in the next few days. In other words, you need to own them before a particular date in order to receive their dividends. Let’s take a look at three of them at random. Wednesday, 5 September 2018 On Wednesday, global electronics services provider, Venture Corporation Ltd (SGX: V03), is pencilled in to go ex-dividend. Venture is dishing out 20.0 Singapore cents per share for its second quarter of 2018. For the three months ended 30 June 2018, even though the top line fell 6% to S$952.3 million, net profit climbed 40.2% to S$97.9 million. For the first half of 2018, the bottom line grew 53% to S$181.6 million. Venture attributed the improved profitability to its initiatives to leverage its core capabilities in R&D (research and devel

Performance of Straits Times Index (STI) Constituents in August 2018 The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 106.37 points or 3.20% lower to 3213.48 in August 2018.(compared to 3319.85 on 31-Jul-2018) Top Performers: Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Venture Corporation, CapitaLand, Wilmar International, Sembcorp Industries. Least Performers: Thai Beverage, Genting Singapore, Jardine Strategic, City Developments, DBS Group. Most Volatile: Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Thai Beverage, Genting Singapore, Venture Corporation, CapitaLand. Advertisement Continue Reading »

The earnings season is coming to the tail-end with the bulk of the companies having reported their financial results. Among the blue-chips of the Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI), a handful of them have raised their dividends in the latest quarter. Let’s take a look at these companies. Keppel Corporation Limited (SGX: BN4) Keppel Corp is a conglomerate with four business divisions, namely, Offshore & Marine, Property, Infrastructure and Investments. For the six months ended 30 June 2018, net profit came in at S$583.6 million, up 38% year-on-year from S$423 million reported a year ago. The improvement was due to stronger contributions from the Property and Infrastructure divisions, which were partially offset by losses incurred by the Offshore & Marine and Investments divisions. T

The FTSE Value-Stocks ASEAN Index uses a proprietary screen to identify value stocks from ASEAN. The index uses a criterion which looks at valuation, quality factors, and contrarian factors. On the valuation front, the index uses the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio as its main selection determinant. Once all the companies that fit into its screening criteria are selected and ranked, the 50 companies with the lowest PE ratios are selected for the index. SGX recently released a report, looking at the performance of the 10 Singapore companies included in the index. We looked at five from the list here. Today, let’s take a look the other five (figures as of 13 Aug 2018, unless otherwise stated): 1. Mapletree Logistics Trust (SGX: M44U) is the third, real estate investment trust (REIT) to be inc

With a rising interest rate environment, the case for buying stocks is becoming less compelling. Despite a rising interest rate environment, MBKE thinks that there is still a small set of stocks that are worth buying and holding – growth stocks. Investors Takeaway: MBKE’s 5 Growth Stocks To Buy And Hold Singapore Post MBKE highlights SingPost as one of the best placed logistics companies in ASEAN that is poised to benefit from the rapid growth in e-commerce. The recent continued growth in international mail volume through its partnership with Alibaba is evidence of the rapid growth in ecommerce. Although SingPost has had its fair share of results disappointment lately, MBKE believes this is mainly due to the implementation of revised terminal dues. Its ability to ride on the gro

The FTSE Value-Stocks ASEAN Index promises to curate a group of high quality value stocks from the ASEAN region. A recent report from local bourse operator SGX revealed that there are 10 Singapore-listed companies made the cut for the index. As a quick background, the FTSE Value-Stocks ASEAN Index is made up of approximately 50 value stocks from the ASEAN region, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore. The index provider uses a proprietary value screen that includes valuation, quality and contrarian factors. Over the past 10 years the FTSE Value-Stocks ASEAN Index has returned an annualised yield of 6.6%. In contrast, the Singapore stocks within the index which are included have returned a staggering 155% total return or 9.9% annualised. Let take a quick look at t

Last week, Venture Corporation Ltd (SGX: V03) announced its financial results for the second quarter ended 30 June 2018. The company is an electronics manufacturing services provider with expertise in a wide range of activities. Here are 10 things investors should know from the latest earnings announcement: 1. Revenue for the quarter went down 6.0% year-on-year to S$952.3 million. 2. Profit before tax, however, rose 36.3% year-on-year to S$115.2 million. 3. Profit attributable to shareholders was up by 40.2% year-on-year to S$97.9 million. 4. Consequently, Venture’s diluted earnings per share improved 37.7% year-on-year to 33.6 cents. 5. Profit before tax margin grew from 8.3% last year to 12.1% in the latest quarter. 6. As at 30 June 2018, the company had S$688.6 million in cash on the

My view: S'pore-IT-pick: Venture Corp (VMS SP) Px/Tgt SGD16.80/18.20 Theme: buy-<sgd16 1. Personally, I think VMS SP is a good BUY <sgd16 because of: a. Despite the unexpected good results, VMS has not addressed key issues: i. Flagging IQOS production ii. Slowdown in the production outlook iii. We need a clear explanation as to whether net margins of 10% are sustainable 2. UOBKH research has a HOLD & maintain target price at sgd18.20. They prefers to buy at sgd16. Venture's 2Q18 net profit of S$97.9m was above our expectations. Results saw lower revenue, with the beat coming on the back of higher net margins, aided by a boost from R&D. It remains to be seen whether this margin can be sustained.

Performance of Straits Times Index (STI) Constituents in July 2018 The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 51.15 points or 1.54% higher to 3319.85 in July 2018.(compared to 3268.70 on 29-Jun-2018) Top Performers: Singapore Press Holdings, Jardine Strategic, Jardine Matheson, Jardine Cycle & Carriage, Thai Beverages. Least Performers: Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, City Developments, Golden Agri Resources, Singapore Airlines, Venture Corp. Most Volatile: City Developments, Golden Agri Resources, UOL Group, Singapore Press Holdings, Hutchison Port Holdings Trust. Advertisement Continue Reading »

Venture Corp Chart 1(Click on Technical Chart above to Expand to read the Full Illustrations)Attached is the technicals of Venture Corp -- STI index component tech stock. The light-orange circled region is my live analysis on 15th July 2016 forewarning that technology stocks and the NASDAQ back then were about to rally massively, and that Venture would massively rally as well (refer to past track record here: http://donovan-ang.blogspot.com/2016/07/sgx-venture-klse-technology-index-and.html). Right after my preempting, Venture Corp rallied from my $8.82 buy point to hit $28.81, a returns of +327% in just 2 years.The dark-orange circled region is my live analysis in January 2018 calling for most tech stocks such as Venture Corp to start peaking for sector rotation from technology

Time flies. In the blink of an eye, half of year 2018 has already gone past us as we march into the third quarter of the year. It seems like yesterday when the Dow Jones Industrial Average lifted regional markets by continuing to chart historical new highs underpinned by strong corporate earnings as a result of the tax cut, but now we are engulfed by worries of a large-scale trade war between the two largest economies of the world. It is sometimes amusing to see how market sentiments can swing from one extreme to another so abruptly without any apparent prior warnings. As we brace ourselves for surprises in the upcoming earnings season, let us take a moment to review on how the market has performed in the first half of the year so far. Straits Times Index Still Holding Up The performance o

First quarter of 2018 has passed in a blink of an eye. I thought it would be interesting to look at STI and have a good sense how the STI blue chips are doing, especially when we just had some volatility in Feb and Mar this year.Source: Business Times, 31 Mar 2018Based on the table above, I noticed thatFive companies are at a price level of 75th percentile or higher based on their past one-year price range: City Developments, Venture Corp, DBS, OCBC and UOB. Among these, Venture at $28.11 is the closest to its 52 week high, owing to its recent inclusion into STI and the continued optimism on electronic manufacturing sector.Seventeen companies are now within 25% of their one-year lowest price. This is more than half of the 30 components of STI. Among them, Hutchison Port Holdings ($0.295) a

With the ongoing trade feud between China and the United States, market participants have been selling down stocks that they think may be affected. This includes the manufacturing stocks such as Venture Corporation Limited (SGX: V03) (42% down its peak), AEM Holdings Ltd (SGX: AWX) (-42.7%), Valuetronics Holdings Limited (SGX: BN2) (-38%) and Micro-Mechanics (Holdings) Ltd (SGX: 5DD) (-25.4%). The tax on exports will most certainly have an impact on the companies that have their factories located in China and whose direct customers are from the United States. However, some of the sell-down may have been massively overdone. Therefore, I think this might represent a perfect opportunity to buy some of these electronics manufacturers on the cheap. With that, here are two companies I feel cou

A company can do a few things with the free cash flow it churns out every year. It can reinvest the money into its business, use it to pare down debt, pay dividends to shareholders, or buy back its shares. There are a few reasons why companies want to buy back their shares. Some companies might do so to support their share price. By reducing the number of shares outstanding, the earnings per share will increase. This, in turn, causes the price-to-earnings ratio to fall due to a larger denominator. The share price should then rise as the market perceives the share price to be cheaper than before the repurchase. In June this year, 74.6 million shares were repurchased by 33 companies for a total amount of S$174 million, according to a recent report by Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX: S68). Th

The Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI), which tracks the performance of the top 30 largest and most liquid companies listed in Singapore, was in the red for June. For the month, the local stock market bellwether tumbled 4.7% to 3,268.7. Of the 30 index components, four were in the green; one was flat while the remaining 25 were in the red. The top three winners of the Straits Times Index were Jardine Strategic Holdings Limited (SGX: J37), Hutchison Port Hldg Trust (SGX: NS8U) and Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (SGX: J36).Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence (stock prices for the above stocks have been converted to Singapore dollars from US dollars) Jardine Strategic is a holding company with long-term strategic investments in multinational businesses. Jardine Strategic owns 58% of J

There are many ways to find investment ideas. Some useful ways are to screen for stocks or to look at a list of stocks near their 52-week lows to sieve out potential bargains. Studying what institutional investors have been buying or selling is another avenue. Institutional investors are typically large investment organisations, such as hedge funds, mutual funds, unit trust companies, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies and so on. These investors tend to possess vastly greater resources than individual investors like you and me when researching stocks. Hence, it may be useful to keep a close eye on what they are doing, as a way to generate ideas. In this article, I will look at three Singapore stocks (among the top ten stocks) that have seen the highest net disposal in dollar value

There are many ways to find investment ideas. Some useful methods are to screen for stocks or to look at a list of stocks near their 52-week lows to sieve out potential bargains. Studying what institutional investors have been buying or selling is another avenue. Institutional investors are typically large investment organisations, such as hedge funds, mutual funds, unit trust companies, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies and so on. These investors tend to possess vastly greater resources than individual investors like you and me when researching stocks. Hence, it may be useful to keep a close eye on what they are doing, as a way to generate ideas. In this article, I will look at three Singapore stocks that were in the list of the top 10 stocks that saw the highest net sales in do