[ET Net News Agency, 13 August 2019] Citi Research lowered its target price for China
Literature (CL)(00772) to HK$32 from HK$40 and maintained its "neutral" rating.
The research house said CL's 1H non-GAAP earnings came in at Rmb390mn, 22% lower than
Citi's projection of Rmb500mn. The difference mainly came from weaker-than-expected online
reading business, only Rmb96mn earnings contribution from NCM (New Classics Media) and
more-than-expected marketing cost in 1H.
Citi added that operation metrics look unexciting as well. MAU (Monthly Active User) was
up 1.7%, MPU (Monthly Paying User) was down 9.3%, and ARPU was down 8%. As such, it
lowered its earnings forecasts by 20/24/25% for 2019/20/21. (KL)