KUALA LUMPUR: Mega First Corp Bhd’s earnings for the first quarter of this year has exceeded analysts’ estimates.
Public Investment said the results are above expectations, making up 34 per cent and 32 per cent of its and consensus full-year estimates respectively.
As a result, the research firm has raised Mega First’s earnings forecast and share target price to RM5.04 from RM4.74 previously.
“We fine-tune our numbers, which sees a slight increase of two per cent in our financial year 2019 earnings,” it said in a note.
“It is worth noting that we have not factored in the one-off electricity earnings contribution over the wet testing period that is expected to come in the late-third quarter as information remains sketchy for now,” it added.
Mega First has posted a net profit of RM33.66 million for the first quarter ended March this year, higher than RM31.5 million posted in the corresponding quarter last year.
This was mainly due to an increase in construction profit and foreign exchange gain of RM2.1 million.
However, it registered a core net profit of RM31.5 million for the quarter six per cent lower than the same quarter last year after stripping out the foreign exchange gain.
Public Investment said the firm’s construction of the Laos power plant saw a further 8.3 per cent completed during the quarter, meanwhile, bringing cumulative physical completion to 87.3 per cent as of March.