Sahara Petrochemical’s Q4 misses estimates, says Riyad Cap

Sahara Petrochemical Co.’s net profit of SAR 95 million for Q4 2017 was lower than Riyad Capital and consensus estimates of SAR 130 million and SAR 141 million, respectively, Riyad Capital said in a recent report.

The profit miss is due to lower margins from Al Waha, as propane prices rally led to falling spreads as well as increased losses from Saudi Acrylic Acid Company (SAAC), the report said.

“We maintain our 2018-19 estimates and target price for now. We raise our DPS (dividend per share) forecasts to SAR 1, offers dividend yield of 6.2 percent,” Riyad Capital said.

“At present, we do not see any significant reasons to go bullish on the stock and thus maintain our neutral rating,” it added.  

Riyad Capital has for now kept Sahara’s target price unchanged at SAR 16.

The research firm reiterated its long-term view on Sahara’s consistent earnings growth, to be driven by improvement from associates.