Posted by jack_ng > Jul 18, 2012 10:48 AM | Report Abuse

Price target reduced to $15.5 by Maybank Kim Eng. It is time to take profit?

"2Q12 results, due Aug 7, are likely to be softer QoQ, in our view. Some features that we expect include a) stable loan expansion, b) a normalization of trading income and c) QoQ NIM contraction. The stock has outperformed its peers YTD (+22% vs 20% for DBS, 12% for OCBC). However, valuations are no longer cheap, in our view, with the stock trading at a 2012 P/BV of 1.4x for an ROE of 11.5% vs 1.1x for DBS (10.8% ROE) and 1.4x for OCBC (12.2% ROE). Our TP of SGD15.50 (P/BV 1.1x) is maintained."