Brief Growth Ideas: Misumi Group (9962 JP): Another Downward Revision and more

In this briefing:

1. Misumi Group (9962 JP): Another Downward Revision
2. JDI: Share Price Continues to Slide Following Weak Earnings Outlook Due to US-China Trade War
3. Koito Outperforms in 3Q While Stanley Disappoints; Latter Still on Track to Achieve FY03/19E Target
4. CyberAgent Cuts Its OP Guidance by JPY10bn; We Are Still Bullish
5. TDK Revises FY03/19 Guidance on the Back of US-China Trade Tensions

1. Misumi Group (9962 JP): Another Downward Revision

Misumi Group sold off after announcing poor 3Q results and another downward revision to FY Mar-19 sales and profit guidance, but bounced right back to finish at ¥2,480 yesterday (January 31), which is 30x management’s new EPS estimate for this fiscal year. Price/book value (as of the end of December) is 3.6x. The indicated dividend was cut in line with guidance, maintaining management’s 25% payout ratio target but resulting in a dividend yield of 0.8%.

Operating and net profits are now expected to decline. Management is guiding for a 7.1% increase in sales in FY Mar-19 as a whole, but monthly data shows year-on-year growth dropping to 5.2%  in November and 3.1% in December. Factory Automation sales were unchanged in November and down 1.3% in December, 

In the three months to December, operating profit dropped 17.8% year-on-year on a 5.7% increase in sales, with Factory Automation profit down 16.9% and VONA profit down 35.4%. Inventory was up while receivables were down. Sales growth in China turned negative. 

The company continues to invest in production capacity, logistics and IT, aiming to expand its Factory Automation and VONA e-commerce businesses in Japan, Asia, America and Europe. The goal is to create a unified, cloud-based, rapid-response distribution system with the world’s largest components and production materials database. The anticipated success of this plan appears to explain both the rebound in the share price and relatively high current valuation, but with the China growth trajectory broken and the economic outlook uncertain, it may take longer and come with lower margins than originally expected.

2. JDI: Share Price Continues to Slide Following Weak Earnings Outlook Due to US-China Trade War

A Japanese newspaper recently reported that JDI is expected to post a consolidated loss for the current fiscal year. However, the company claims that the newspaper report was not based on any forecast made by JDI. The company has stated that it is currently calculating topline and bottomline for the third quarter and it expects the economic slowdown in China, prolonged user lifecycles for smartphones and the US China trade war to in fact have a greater than expected impact on the company’s financial performance. While its third quarter results are to be released in mid-February 2019, consensus expects the company to turnaround its losses to make an overall net profit for the year.

3. Koito Outperforms in 3Q While Stanley Disappoints; Latter Still on Track to Achieve FY03/19E Target

Koito Manufacturing (7276 JP) released its 3QFY03/19 earnings that saw revenue outpace consensus estimates by +2%, while Stanley Electric (6923 JP) ’s revenue fell below consensus estimates by -1%. While Koito witnessed revenue growth of 10% YoY, Stanley posted a decline in revenue for the quarter by -4% YoY. On profitability as well, Koito witnessed growth of +6% YoY, achieving an OPM of 12%. Stanley, on the other hand, experienced a decline in OP for the quarter by -7% YoY, although still managing to achieve a relatively higher OPM of 13%. Here again, Koito managed to beat consensus estimates by +1% while Stanley fell below consensus estimates by -3%. Our conservative estimates for 3Q looked a bit light for Koito while they were slightly high for Stanley.  Koito has been the company which usually disappoints the market with its earnings results, although it has proved otherwise this quarter.

That being said, it should be noted that, although Stanley’s three months ended results did not look particularly robust, its nine months ended results were quite favourable. The company witnessed the revenue grow 0.5% YoY (for the nine months ended 30^th Dec 2018) while OP grew by 5.9% YoY, supported by the steady growth in the high-margin LED headlamps. For Koito, on the other hand, the three months ended results seemed quite favourable, although the nine months ended results displayed a revenue decline of -5.1% YoY and OP decline of -2.4% YoY, citing the deconsolidation of its Chinese subsidiary and the decrease in the volume of automobile production in some of its business regions as the key reasons. Thus, the overall YTD financial performance of Stanley looks still attractive compared to that of Koito. Following the earnings release, Stanley opened -3.7% down on Thursday from Tuesday’s close, while Koito closed +4.8% up on Wednesday since Friday’s close.

4. CyberAgent Cuts Its OP Guidance by JPY10bn; We Are Still Bullish

Cyberagent Inc (4751 JP) reported 1Q FY09/19 financial results on Wednesday (30^th January) after the market close. CyberAgent reported revenue of JPY110.8bn (+13.2%YoY) and OP of JPY5.3bn (-35.2%YoY) for 1Q FY09/19.

Revenue and OP both missed consensus (JPY111.7bn and JPY8.2bn respectively). This was mostly due to low OP from the Game business due to increased advertising expenditure for new titles. OP margin of the Internet Advertisement business also fell due to upfront investments for expansion. Media business, driven by AbemaTV, demonstrated strong topline growth driven by robust increase in the number of AbemaTV premium users but continued to make losses due to heavy investment in content development.

CyberAgent revised down its full-year FY03/19E OP guidance to JPY20bn from JPY30bn previously, but we continue to remain positive about the company’s long term performance, driven by the prospects of its passive TV business (see Mio Kato‘s previous note on this Cyberagent: Aggressive Plans for Passive TV).

CyberAgent’s share price closed at JPY3,500 on Thursday (31st January) down 16% from its previous close. CyberAgent’s share price has been on a bearish trend for the last two quarters, down 49% from an all-time high of JPY6,800 in July. We believe this presents an ideal buying opportunity for the stock. Our SOTP valuation for CyberAgent gives a FY1 target price of JPY4,480 which implies a 28% upside to the current market price.

For details on Cyberagent’s business model please see our previous notes CyberAgent: Hot Internet Media Stock Up ~50% YTD (Part 1) and CyberAgent (Part II): Medium-Term Prospects Are Priced In; Positive Long-Term Outlook .

5. TDK Revises FY03/19 Guidance on the Back of US-China Trade Tensions

• TDK revised its FY03/19E guidance following the 3QFY03/19 earnings release, which underperformed both consensus and LSR expectations. 
• The company has been affected by the US-China trade war and the deceleration of the Chinese economy in the third quarter. 
• Revenue guidance for FY03/19E has been decreased to JPY1,370bn from JPY1,420bn (-3.5%) projected in October 2018. OP guidance for the year has been reduced to JPY110bn compared to the previous expectation of JPY120bn (-8.3%).
• On our estimates, TDK is currently trading at a FY1 PE of 12x, lower than its historical median of 16.4x.