Everyone loves Tencent — even after it lost more than $150bn in market value
Hong Kong — They’ve reduced price targets, lowered earnings estimates and pulled the stock from focus lists. But good luck finding an analyst who’s willing to ditch their "buy" recommendation on Tencent Holdings, of which Naspers owned just more than 30%. Even after the Chinese internet behemoth lost more than $150bn of market value since late January, all 51 analysts tracked by Bloomberg have the equivalent of a buy rating on the stock — a tally unique among the world’s 50 largest companies. The recommendations have held firm despite at least 11 share-price target reductions since June, a more than 10% drop in second-quarter earnings estimates since March, and Morgan Stanley’s decision to remove the stock from three focus lists on Thursday. It’s easy to see why analysts are reluctant to go much further. Tencent’s more than 49,000% return since its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) in 2004 — fueled by the rise of its hugely popular WeChat messaging platform — is bigger than th...
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