KUALA LUMPUR – Pharmaniaga’s shares were in the red in early trade today, despite posting a jump in revenue in the second quarter (Q2) of the financial year 2021.
At 10.20am, the counter eased one sen to 91.5 sen, with 6.31 million units traded.
On Friday, Pharmaniaga announced that its net profit for Q2, which ended on June 30, rose to RM13.7 million from RM9.98 million recorded a year ago.
Revenue soared 82% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM1.2 billion, mainly due to higher demand from all segments, including businesses in Indonesia.
In its filing with Bursa Malaysia, the leading pharmaceuticals company said the significant increase in non-concession business was attributable to the sale of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine to the Health Ministry (MoH).
Moving forward, Pharmaniaga believes that it is well-positioned to leverage the robust opportunities that are offered by the growing healthcare sector.
In a research note, Malaysian Industrial Development Finance (MIDF) Research highlighted that in the first half of 2021, Pharmaniaga’s net profit rose by 13.8% y-o-y to RM36.8 million, which is above its expectation, while its revenue rose by 34.5% y-o-y to RM1.97 billion.
“Given Pharmaniaga’s capability to continuously manufacture fill-and-finish vaccines, it has the advantage and capacity to continuously supply vaccines to the federal and state governments, as well as the private sector, thus assuring that the national vaccination roll-out goes on smoothly and swiftly,” it said.
Hence, MIDF Research is maintaining its “buy” call on Pharmaniaga’s shares, with an unchanged target price (TP) of RM0.98.
Meanwhile, CGS-CIMB expects the company to see contribution from its Covid-19 vaccine sale ramp up in the second half of 2021 as a significant portion of the contracted 12 million doses earmarked for MoH was delivered in July, in line with the acceleration of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
“We keep our forecasts intact pending further details from its analyst briefing. We retain our ‘add’ call and TP of RM1.06,” it noted. – Bernama, August 23, 2021
