Analysts have revised their full-year earnings forecasts and upgraded their investment recommendations for China Mobile (Hong Kong) after its interim net profit beat market forecasts.
CLSA Emerging Markets analyst Stephen Leung Siu-hung upgraded his forecast by 3.3 per cent to 33.21 billion yuan (about HK$31.11 billion) after seeing the carrier beat his interim earnings projection by 3.5 per cent.
SG Asia Pacific Equities' Charle Peza lifted his projection for China Mobile's full-year net profit by 5.2 per cent to 33.84 billion yuan and changed his investment recommendation from underperform to hold.
On Wednesday, the mainland's dominant cellular carrier said its net profit for the six months to June 30 had reached 15.2 billion yuan, while turnover hit 55.1 billion yuan.
The figures topped consensus forecasts by analysts of a net profit of 14.74 billion on 54.29 billion yuan turnover.
China Mobile also surprised analysts with a stronger than expected earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin of 60.6 per cent due to improved cost-efficiency and only a moderate erosion of per user revenue.
'After our earnings forecast revisions, we have raised our [discount to cash flow-based] target to HK$25 per share and upgraded our recommendation to hold,' Mr Peza said in his report.