Businessweek

NEWS BITES ASIAN MARKETS

Vantage Equities, Inc. (PH:V), the 2nd largest diversified finanacial services company by market capitalisation in the Philippines', traded at its 37-day high of PHP2.64. The stock price increased 5.0 centavo (or 1.9%) to close at PHP2.64. Compared with the PSEi Index, which rose 108.6 points (or 1.6%) on the day, this was a relative price change of 0.3%. The volume was 0.1 times the average trading of 2.1 million shares.

Bullish Signals

Uptrend

- Rises to Falls: in the past month the number of rises outnumbered falls 8:5 or 1.6:1.

- The price lifted 3.5% in the last week and climbed 4.3% in the last month.

- The 2.2% discount to 12-month high of PHP2.70 against the 54.4% premium to 12-month low of PHP1.71 suggests the stock continues to push for new highs.

- The present value of PHP1,000 (PV1000) invested one year ago is PHP1,419, for a capital gain of PHP419.

Fundamental measures by comparison with the sector average [in brackets] indicate Undervaluation:

- Price/Earnings of 10.8 [41.3]. We estimate the shares are trading at a current year P/E of 8 and a forward year P/E of 5.9.

- Price to Book of 1 [4.9]. We estimate the shares are trading at a current year Price to Book of 0.9 and a forward year Price to Book of 0.8.

Other Bullish Signals:

- Total Liabilities/EBITDA of 0.5 is comfortably below 5, this compares favourably with the Joseph Piotroski benchmark of 5.

- The P/E of 10.8 multiplied by the P/NTA of 1 is 11.1. Being less than the Benjamin Graham benchmark of 22.5 the stock appears undervalued.

- Interest cover defined by EBIT/I is 219.4 times. This indicates it is less leveraged.

- Tobin's Q Ratio, defined as MCap divided by Total Assets, is 0.9. Compared with the rest of the market the stock is undervalued.

Bearish Signals

Fundamental measures by comparison with the sector average [in brackets] indicate Overvaluation:

- Return on Equity 9.5% [12.0%].

- Return on Assets 8.8% [11.0%].

Note

Volume: there were 301,000 shares worth PHP794,640 (US$19,468.7) traded.

Beta: the Beta of this stock is 0.4. A Beta lower than 1 suggests this is a low risk, low return stock with volatility less than that of the market.

COMPANY ANNOUNCEMENTS

The last 7 company announcements are:

February 13: Vantage Equities director buys

Vantage Equities (V.PH) director Roxas Pedro E. bought 50,000 shares worth approximately PHP126,000 (US$3,092) on February 07, 2013. The purchase price was PHP2.52.