KUALA LUMPUR: Public Bank shares soared to a fresh record high of RM22.90 on Friday after it announced historic high earnings for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2017.
At 4.10pm, it was uo 56 sen to RM22.84. There were 6.41 million shares done.
The jump in the bank's shares also helped to power the FBM KLCI.
The KLCI was up 6.82 points or 0.37% to 1,861.89. Turnover was 3.10 billion shares valued at RM1.96bil. There were 450 gainers, 421 losers and 510 counters unchanged.
CIMB Equities Research raised its FY18-19F earnings per share (EPS) forecasts for Public Bank by about 3% to factor in the recent interest rate hikes. This also lifted its dividend discount model-based target price from RM20.40 to RM21.30.
“Despite its strong fundamentals, we still rate Public Bank a Hold in view of the rich valuations – the second-highest in the sector for its CY19 P/E of 13.1 times, and the highest for its CY19 price-to-book value of 1.8 times,” it said.
On Thursday, Public Bank posted an improved set of financial results for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2017 with earnings at a record RM5.47bil, up 5% from the RM5.20bil a year ago.
Its revenue increased to RM20.858bil from RM20.102bil. It proposed a final dividend of 34 sen a share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 61 sen compared with 32 sen a year ago and 58 sen for FY16.
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