KUALA LUMPUR: Maybank Investment Bank Research has upgraded Eco World Development Bhd to "buy" on share price weakness despite lowering its earnings expectation for the year.

       The research house has a target price of 78 sen on the share, which represents an 18% premium over Thursday's last traded price of 66 sen.

       According to the research house, it slashed earnings projections for FY21-23 by 7.1% to 7.8% due to lower contribution from Eco World International and the full lockdown in June 2021 dragging on group earnings.

       The group posted a 2QFY21 net profit of RM42.3mil which brought 6MFY21 net profit to RM104.8mil, representing 49% and 51% of Maybank IB's and consensus full-year estimates.

       Meanwhile, EcoWorld's property sales in 7MFY21 was an impressive RM2.53bil or 89% of its FY21 sales target of RM2.9bil.