Itqan Capital maintains “Neutral” recommendation for Bank Albilad

Itqan Capital adjusted the target share price of Bank Albilad to SAR 23.1 and maintained its “Neutral” recommendation.

“We still believe that FY2020 will be a challenging year for the whole Saudi banking sector, especially Q2, amid the reduction in Repo & Reverse Repo rates by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA),” the brokerage firm said in a research note.

This, combined with the high probability of private sector delinquency, will increase Bank Albilad’s provisions, the firm added.

Itqan Cap also expected the bank to post a net profit of SAR 1.171 billion in 2020, and increase to SAR 1.444 billion in 2021.

The “Neutral” recommendation means that the share price will stay in the range of value (up/down 10%) in a 52-week period.