In today’s briefing:
- Recruit Buyback: An Attempt to Rescue Falling Share Price; Seems Like a Good Short
- Advantest – Upside and Downside Scenarios
- Keyence – Not a Gimme but Worth a Small Buy Into Earnings
- Japan’s Governance: About the Article on Holding Shares Contributed to Retirement Benefit Trusts
Recruit Buyback: An Attempt to Rescue Falling Share Price; Seems Like a Good Short
- Recruit has announced a share buy-back on Friday of 34.0m shares (2.06% of outstanding shares) for JPY155.8bn, implying JPY4,581 per share.
- Recruit’s shares closed at JPY5,090 per share at the end of Thursday’s close, and following the announcement, shares moved up to JPY5,305 a piece, gaining 4.2%.
- We think Recruit’s shares will be a good Short over the next few days.
Advantest – Upside and Downside Scenarios
- Advantest shares are down 19% from their Jan 4th high after a post earnings rally on Friday.
- While order momentum remains strong it has moderated slightly since 2Q and longer-term risks are a concern.
- What remains to be seen is how sustainable Chinese demand is given its steady rise since 2016.
Keyence – Not a Gimme but Worth a Small Buy Into Earnings
- We are broadly negative the FA sector as we expect earnings to fall next FY for most players and valuations are extended.
- Keyence is an exception in that we expect further growth next year although valuations are extended even for Keyence.
- We believe this is because the market is pricing in its greater earnings resilience but maybe not quite enough.
Japan’s Governance: About the Article on Holding Shares Contributed to Retirement Benefit Trusts
- Few investors are able to analyze the details of policy holdings and deemed shareholdings and their trends without reading and analyzing the annual securities reports of each company in detail.
- It is impossible to analyze the details of policy holdings and deemed shareholdings and their trends without reading and analyzing the annual securities reports of each company in detail.
- Companies holding the deemed shareholdings performed the worst, even though the impact on the assets on balance sheet is limited because the deemed shareholdings are contributed to retirement benefit trusts.
Before it’s here, it’s on Smartkarma
