KUALA LUMPUR (July 27): Pantech Group Holdings Bhd rose 2.36% in active trade this morning after JF Apex Securities Research upgraded the stock to a “Buy” (from Hold) with a higher target price of 70 sen (from 61 sen).

At 9.05am, Pantech rose 1.5 sen to 65 sen with 2.28 million share traded.

In a note today, the research house said Pantech’s 1QFY18 net profit jumped 65% y-o-y to RM13.3 million on the back of higher revenue and improved margin.

It said quarterly revenue increased 22% y-o-y to RM151.5 million due to higher demand from RAPID, Pengerang and improved overseas demand.

JF Apex said Pantech’s three months’ net profit accounted for 35% of house full year estimate while first quarter revenue achieved 30% of FY18 forecast.

“We are lifting our FY18 and FY19 forecasts by 6% and 5.5% respectively with expectation that earnings will continue to be boosted by RAPID and start-up losses in its new galvanising plant will ease,” it said.