Citi: Maintain a "buy" rating on J&T EXPRESS-W (01519) with a target price of 8.3 Hong Kong dollars.

Citi released a research report stating that it maintains a "buy" rating for J&T EXPRESS-W (01519) with a target price of HK$8.3. It has raised profit forecasts for the fiscal years 2025 and 2026 by 18% and 9% respectively. The bank also mentioned that J&T Express has solid execution capabilities to solidify its market position, and believes that further expansion of TikTokShop in Latin America could serve as a potential catalyst for the stock price. Citi pointed out that in the second half of the 2024 fiscal year, J&T Express exceeded its adjusted profit expectations, mainly due to strong business volume growth and good cost optimization in the Southeast Asian region. Profit margin improvement exceeded expectations. The bank expects that J&T Express's profit momentum in Southeast Asia in 2025 may be mainly driven by strong business volume growth, while continuing to adopt an aggressive pricing strategy to pass on the decreased unit costs in order to gain market share. In addition, the bank holds a cautious optimistic attitude towards J&T's business volume growth and profit margin improvement in China, but expects competition pressure to continue. As for the momentum in new markets, it faces risks from uncertainties in cross-border e-commerce platform policies.