[ET Net News Agency, 14 January 2020] CICC Research lifted its target price for CNOOC
Ltd (00883) by 3% to HK$16 and maintained its "outperform" rating.
The research house said CNOOC's FY2019 capex came in at Rmb80.2bn, beating the guided
range of Rmb70-80bn and CICC's expectation of Rmb79bn. It also guided that FY2020 capex at
Rmb85-95bn, in line with CICC's forecast.
CNOOC positioned itself as a well-rounded E&P player to deliver not just quality growth,
but also FCF (free cash flow) growth and cash dividend growth to cater to shareholders,
largely expelling market concerns the upcoming production/capex cycle could come at the
expenses of shareholder returns.
CICC thinks FY2019 results (to be released on 20 March) could be the next positive
catalyst for the stock, considering the current earnings consensus of Rmb56.9bn seems too
low. It raised its FY2019 and FY2020 EPS forecasts 13.4% and 7.1% to Rmb1.36 and Rmb1.48
per share on higher output guidance and better-than-expected cost control. (KL)