“Thai Coconut” Stock Rises as Brokers Are Positive on Future Operations and Performance

On Thursday morning (12 Oct, 10:25 AM, GMT+7, Bangkok time), the Thai Coconut PLC (mai: COCOCO)’s stock price jumped as much as 4.6% to 10.10 baht per share, despite the edging down of Thai main index (SET). The stock closed the morning session at 9.90 baht, increased 0.25 baht or 2.59% with a trading value of 246 million baht.

 

DAOL Securities’ analyst report recommends buying COCOCO at 10.2 baht, citing the coconut juice boom in China, while the company is preparing to expand its UHT PRISMA production machine with 385 million baht of investment in 2023.

 

The coconut product exporter was shifting from selling coconut milks to juices which have a higher margin. Even though it just debuted in the exchange last month, COCOCO’s first half of the year financials grew by 18% as its profit increased by 57% to 126 million baht. This may be due to the lower price of raw coconuts as input materials.

 

Meanwhile, UOB Kay Hian Securities also estimated COCOCO base price at 12.5 baht, citing the geographic advantages and China market penetration. UOBKH believed the company’s profit would grow by 38.9% per year through 2022 to 2025, boosted by 26.3% growth on sales per year and production capacity expansion to 218 thousand tonnes in 2023 from 33 thousand tonnes in 2022.

 

In the meantime, COCOCO recently announced that it will expand production capacity of coconut water packed with UHT PRISMA machine to 310,000 tonnes per year by investing in Aseptic Filling with an investment value of 384 million baht.

 

Beyond Securities set COCOCO’s target price at 13.2 baht per share, citing P/E ratio at 24, based on the company’s highly estimated earnings and timely growth strategy.

 

Lastly, Phillip Securities priced COCOCO base price at 14.4 baht per share, citing the production expansion and higher margin of coconut juice as well. Phillip also added that the company has very few competitors compared to global demand, while forecasting the 58.9% YoY profit growth to 601 million baht in 2023, and 79% to 1,076 million baht in 2024.