Reuters: Hot Stocks: UPDATE 1-Olam tumbles to 3-yr low, analysts to slash estimates

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UPDATE 1-Olam tumbles to 3-yr low, analysts to slash estimates May 16th 2012, 03:27 Tue May 15, 2012 11:27pm EDT * Q3 net profit falls 22.5 pct to S$98.7 million * Says industrials segment to weigh on earnings * Consensus estimates may be cut by 10-15 pct - Nomura * Shares fall as much as 9.5 pct in heavy volume (Adds analyst comments) By Charmian Kok SINGAPORE, May 16 (Reuters) - Shares in Olam International Ltd tumbled 9.5 percent as analysts warned of cuts to full-year estimates after the commodity trader reported disappointing earnings and flagged a weak outlook. The turbulence in earnings at Singapore commodity firms comes at a time when global investors are slamming commodities due to growing aversion to risky assets. Last week, shares in palm oil firm, Wilmar International Ltd , fell as much as 10 percent in a single session after a 34 percent slump in quarterly profits. "We've been neutral to slightly negative on commodities. Now the market is adopting a slightly more risk averse attitude and staying clear of riskier stocks like commodity firms," said Carey Wong, an analyst at OCBC Investment Research. In the first two hours of trade, Olam shares were 9 percent weaker at S$1.81 in a broader market down 0.9 percent. More than 26 million shares traded, exceeding the average full-day volume traded over the past five sessions. Ahead of the results released late on Tuesday, the shares had fallen 6 percent so far this year in a market up 8 percent. Olam's January-March net profit declined 22.5 percent to S$98.7 million from a year ago, hurt by lower sales from its industrial raw materials segment, which includes cotton and wood. The commodity trader warned that cyclical events in the industrial raw materials and commodity financial services segments will remain a drag on its fourth-quarter and full year earnings. "We were surprised by the magnitude of the drag from industrial raw materials," CIMB Research analyst Lee Wen Ching said in a report and decreased her price target to S$2.61 from S$3.17. However, she kept an outperform rating, saying Olam's long-term growth strategy remains intact. Nomura expects Olam's April-June earnings to stay weak, due to a drag from its cotton, dairy and sugar segments and expects consensus full-year estimates for Olam to be cut by about 10 percent to 15 percent. Out of 24 analysts tracking Olam, 18 had a buy or strong buy rating, four rated it a hold and only two had a sell rating, according to Thomson Reuters data as of Tuesday. "We expect near term weakness in Olam's share price and those of other commodity plays too. There may be buying opportunities later but not now when whole market is still jittery," said OCBC's Wong. (Editing by Anshuman Daga) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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