Noble Group cut to Neutral from Buy: Citi

Stock Name: Noble Grp
Company Name: NOBLE GROUP LIMITED

Research House: Citigroup

Price Call: HOLD

Target Price: 1.28

Singapore listed Noble Group (N21.SG) has been cut to Neutral from Buy with its target price slashed to $1.28 a share vs $1.68 by Citi Research Equities due to weak earnings.

Noble Group on Thursday announced a 14% drop in its 4Q net profit to US$91.2 million ($113.5 million) vs US$105.7 million a year earlier due to a contraction in the company's operating income margins, with FY2012 net profit rising 9% to US$471.3 million.

“We reduce our rating on Noble to Neutral as its 2 sequential quarters of weak performance in agri lead us to lower our expectations on FY13E-14E ROE to 11-13%, close to what its stock price currently implies,” Citi says in its note.

Noble is currently down 1.7% at $1.1550 a share.