HwangDBS Vickers Research said it has lowered Masterskill's new student intake target to 4,000 from 6,500 this year, 5,100 from 7,300 in 2012.
The following year's student enrolment has also been reduced to 5,700 vis-a-vis 8,100 initial target, it said.
"This is as the year-to-date enrolment rate suggesting Masterskill can struggle to meet our expectations, already lowered amid the tough business environment.
"This was highlighted in our Aug 5 report which focused on the industry trend of seeing fewer students pursuing diploma courses in private education institutions and tighter PTPTN government funding limit," it said in a research note today.
The research house also slashed the group's earnings forecast for 2011 to 2013 by 25 per cent to 58 per cent.
Meanwhile, the group's pre-tax profit for the second quarter ended June 30, 2011 fell by a hefty RM10.565 million from RM25.723 million in the same quarter last year.
Revenue dwindled to RM65.785 million from RM77.113 million in the same quarter last year, the group said in a filing to Bursa Malaysia.
For the half year, its pre-tax profit declined to RM35.444 million from RM57.777 million last year, while its revenue jumped to RM139.469 million from RM154.153 million in 2010.
In a related development, OSK Research revised downwards the earnings per share estimates by over 30 per cent for both financial year 2011 and 2012 to 18.1 sen and 19.1 sen, respectively.
It said this factored in a marginal decline in both student enrolment and annual tuition fees as well as a slight up tick in operating costs.
Meanwhile, HwangDBS downgraded the company to "fully valued" call, with a lower target price of RM1.20 from RM2.50, while OSK Research maintained its "trading buy" call on Masterskill with a lower fair value of RM1.91 versus RM3.23 previously. -- Bernama
Read more: Masterskill's earnings estimate lowered http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/20110829161846/Article/#ixzz1WPmNx3WX
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