The Zhitong Finance App learned that Lyon released a research report stating that the target price of CNPC (00857) H shares will be raised from HK$12 to HK$12.4, and the target price for A-shares will be raised from RMB 15.9 to RMB 16, maintaining the “outperforming the market” rating. The bank believes that CNPC's H shares have been mispriced. The stock price has remained roughly the same for the past two months, but oil prices and the company's A shares rose by about 25% and 19% respectively during the same period, and the premium of A shares over H shares has increased from 27% to 57% since September.
CNPC's net profit for the third quarter was RMB 51.8 billion, up 22% year on year and down 7% from quarter to quarter; Brent's benchmark oil price fell 5% quarterly to 90 US dollars per barrel during the same period. The company's net profit for the first nine months reached RMB 158 billion, which is equivalent to about 89% of the bank's and market forecasts for the whole year. With oil prices continuing to be high, Lyon believes that there is still room for improvement in the company's profits and dividend payments throughout the year.
The bank pointed out that the profit performance of CNPC's four major business divisions was steady, and the refining, chemical and marketing businesses in the downstream business all recorded positive EBIT in the third quarter, in stark contrast to the situation where the downstream business of Sinopec (00386) faced a serious drag. Lyon raised CNPC's 2026-2028 earnings forecast per share by 2% to 8%.