Oge
While everyone is cautious about buying stocks in the NSE market on growing bearish sentiments, Sterlings bank’s stock seems to have shown some resistance last week as it appreciated by 6.67% to close at ₦1.60, from an opening price of ₦1.5. This might be one of the undervalued bank stocks to buy in the Nigeria stock market.
You are strongly advised to do you own research.
The upward move in the share price isn’t unconnected to the bank’s impressive Q3 results which showed revenue, interest income and profit on double-digit growth trajectory.
As of this analysis, the stock is selling for ₦1.65 with 1-year and YTD performance now at 57.17% and 48.15% respectively.
Analysis Recent Result
Results for the 9-month ended September 2018 show that interest income increased from ₦78.6 billion in 2017 to ₦93.5 billion in 2018, 18.9% growth.
Profit before tax jumped by 30%; from ₦6.5 billion in 2017 to ₦8.5 billion in 2018. Profit after tax increased by 38%; from ₦5.9billion in 2017 to ₦8.2billion in 2018.
In summary, the bank’s bottom line was largely supported by efficient utilization of customers’ deposit on loan and over 50% reduction in impairment charges. This is coming at a time other top tier banks (GTB, Zenith, UBA, FirstBank) are cutting down on their loan book which unsuprisingly affected interest income.
The bank has a Return on Equity 10%, Return on Asset of 1% while Net Interest Margin is 7%
Customer’s deposit, a measure of customers’ confidence in the bank, also grew by 5% to ₦723 billion from ₦684 billion. This also translated to increased lending to the private sector, as loan and advances to customers increased from ₦662 billion from ₦598 billion.
OPEX increased by 54% as the bank incurred more cost on administrative expenses.
Cash generated from operations on the Q3 report is ₦7.6 b (compared to a negative cash flow ₦100 billion in the previous comparable period)
Technical Analysis
Sterlings bank share price is trading for ₦1.65, above its 50-day average of ₦1.52 and 20-day moving average price of ₦1.43.
Generally, a stock is bullish on a short and long term when its share price is above 50-day and 200-day moving averages respectively.
With the price showing a recent cross above the 200-day SMA of ₦1.50, Sterlings bank might be set for an impressive long-term bullish run
Valuation
Sterlings bank reported a 9-month EPS of 28k, which is 33% more than the EPS of 21k in the comparable period (2017).
Using an adjusted discount rate of 15%, an assumed zero growth on TTM EPS of 37k we assign a fair value of ₦2.46 to the stock, which is 49% above the current share price of ₦1.65.
Besides, the banking stock has a forward PE ratio of 4.45 which is below industry average; there is room for upside.
Market update
No update on
Recommendation
We assign a BUY rating on Sterlings bank’s stock.
About Sterlings Bank Plc
Sterling Bank PLC provides banking products and services to personal and business customers. The Bank offers services in corporate/commercial banking, retail & consumer banking, financial investments and management services, capital markets, insurance, and other financial services.
