[ET Net News Agency, 13 August 2020] Goldman Sachs lowered its target price for WH
Group (00288) to HK$10 from HK$10.55 and maintained its "buy" rating.
The research house said WH Group's 1H results were below Goldman's expectations. The
miss was mainly due to the US business shortfall, especially the packaged meat business
seeing margin contraction from foodservice disruptions and high expenses.
Looking forward, management still sees some associated Covid expenses into 3Q and
likely, a much smaller amount into the end of year.
Goldman sees the 2Q result itself as below expectations and built in high expenses for
US into its 2H estimates. However, it believes 2Q should be the worst period for the US,
with sequentially a smaller profit decline in 2H as plants resume and foodservice demand
starts to recover.
Goldman revised down 2020 EPS forecasts by 10% to reflect the slower US trends, but
maintained 2021-22 EPS estimates largely stable (within 3%) as it expects a steady
recovery from the US business and China strength to continue. (KL)