An update has come out recently on Nissan Motor Company (NSANY), in which senior auto industry analyst Paul Raman, CFA continues to rate the stock as Hold. We excerpted the following details:
'Nissan has been accelerating its growth and increasing market share with the aid of several successful product launches. The company has various new launches planned for the current fiscal year. The current Nissan Value-Up plan targets to attain sales of 4.2 million units by fiscal 2009 and a minimum of 20% return on invested capital.
'However, there are concerns about launch costs and the rise of commodity prices. Further, the overall automotive industry environment is a challenging one, with volumes going down. Currently, Nissan is trading at a P/E multiple of 10.3x our 2008 EPADR estimate of $2.04. As Nissan has a zero net automotive debt, its fundamentals appear solid.
'We maintain our Hold rating, as the company faces a continued challenging environment characterized by higher incentives, higher commodity prices, and raw material shortages. Additionally, the proposed launch of new vehicles in North America will raise the risk of incentive growth. Keeping the above factors in mind, we believe the stock can move a notch up to trade at a higher P/E multiple, 10.8x 2008 earnings. Thus, we rate the stock a Hold with a target price of $22.'
Read the full analyst report on NSANY.
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