Noble Grp

Noble Grp: Reported the best quarter for sales and gross profits that the co. had, ahead of consensus estimates. Rev for 3Q10 at US$14.9b, +77.4%YoY and +15.5%QoQ, while Net Profit at US$157.2 was comfortably ahead of consensus estimates of US$132.1m by +20% and +83.2%QoQ…

Strong performance was attributed to record rev from grp’s Energy and Agriculture segments, representing 87% of grp’s rev, with Energy rev contribution surging 109%, while Agriculture contributions +66%. SG&A, which had weighed heavily on grp’s 2Q performance was -31% at US$165m, while Gross Margins increased to 2.96% vs 2.43%QoQ, as grp achieved synergies across its divisions...

PRC continues to be grp’s largest destination by market, accounting for 35% of grp’s tonnage, with emerging markets accounted for 60% of overall tonnage. Balance sheet remains strong, with activity and liquidity ratios improving, while Net Debt / Capitalization was reduced from 53.4% to 48.4% on a proforma basis, and cash level stood at a huge US$2.1b…

We note that result brings 9m10 Net Profit to US$358.1m, on track to hit consensus FY10 estimates of US$473.8m. At current levels, grp trades at an annualized FY10E P/E of 19.1x, vs its historical high of 22.1x and Olam 22.3x FY10E P/E….
B0bbyLu : ….Following grp’s outperformance, street has unaminous Buy Call this morning so far, with Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, Phillips, DMG & Daiwa raising TPs to $2.55, $2.50, $2.33, $2.46 & $2.54 respectively.