A July 28 U.S. brokerage note lowered Mitsubishi Materials’ target while keeping a top Buy call; separate reports also revised targets for Japan Material, Toyo Gosei, Sumitomo Bakelite and MARUWA.
A major U.S. brokerage maintained its top "Buy (1)" rating on Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (5711.T) in a July 28 report but cut its target price to ¥5,400 from ¥6,700, a reduction of about 19%. The revised target remained above the July 27 market consensus target of ¥5,209, indicating the firm still saw medium- to long-term upside despite a more cautious near-term valuation. The note came as the non-ferrous metals sector faces slower global growth, a weak recovery in China, volatile resource prices and foreign-exchange effects. Mitsubishi Materials, which operates in copper smelting, electronic materials, processing and cement, had a consensus analyst rating of 3, or "Neutral," based on seven analysts as of July 27. The same brokerage also kept a "Neutral" rating on Japan Material (6055.T) and raised its target price to ¥2,300 from ¥2,200. In separate reports, the brokerage kept bullish ratings while lowering target prices for Toyo Gosei (4970.T) to ¥18,700 from ¥20,000, Sumitomo Bakelite (4203.T) to ¥8,300 from ¥9,000, and MARUWA (5344.T) to ¥85,000 from ¥93,000. Those changes suggested a broader effort to moderate near-term valuation assumptions across materials, chemical and electronic materials names while preserving longer-term positive views on selected companies.