Whitehaven hits 15-month high; Citi lifts PT, sees FY22 profit triple

Global Brokerage

16/07/2021 01:47

(Updates)
    ** Whitehaven Coal  WHC.AX , Australia's largest independent
coal miner, jumps as much as 7.7% to A$2.23, its highest since
April 2020
    ** Citi Research lifts price target on WHC to A$2.30 from
A$2.20; maintains "neutral" rating
    ** WHC on Thursday narrowly beat FY coal production
forecast, helped by a record output at its Maules Creek mine in
New South Wales; also said it expects strong demand and prices
in coming months  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2OQ4FK
    ** Citi triples FY22 core net profit forecast for WHC to
A$358.7 mln ($266.37 mln) on sharp run-up in coal prices
    ** Brokerage expects FY21 and FY22 sales to be about A$1.55
bln and A$2.29 bln, respectively, up 12.5% and 16.1% from
previous forecast
    ** WHC marks its biggest intraday pct jump since May 14
    ** Ten of 12 analysts who cover WHC rate it "buy" or higher,
one "hold" and one "sell"
    ** WHC up 25.8% this year, as of last close
    ($1 = 1.3466 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by Aditya Munjuluru and Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru)
 ((Sameer.Manekar@thomsonreuters.com;
aditya.srivastsav@thomsonreuters.com))