Japan's Askul shares fall on drop in 9-month profit

Askul

19/03/2018 01:20

** Shares of office products supplier Askul Corp  2678.T 
fall 8.8 pct to 3,560 yen, lowest since Feb. 9
    ** Company's operating profit drops 41.2 pct to 3.94 bln yen
($37.2 mln) for June-Feb period from a year earlier urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nXB1WCNONJ
    ** As of last close, stock had risen 22.2 pct this year
    ** As of 0107 GMT, about 447,600 shares have been traded,
compared with their 30-day moving average of 264,090 shares a
day
    ** Among the 9 analysts that cover the stock, the current
average rating on the shares is "hold", with 2 "strong buy" or
"buy", five "hold" and two "sell" or "strong sell"; mean price
target is 3,545 yen
    ** Stock's 12-mth forward price-to-earnings ratio at 37.89,
compared with 34.10 at the end of last year
($1 = 105.7600 yen)

 ((Reuters
Messaging:ayai.tomisawa.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))