The goal of an investor should be to locate attractive stocks to consider for his or her portfolio.
However, it is not always easy to scour through hundreds of stocks to find those that are suitable.
Those you should look for include companies with rising revenue and profits or which are paying out higher dividends.
That said, you need to carefully assess the business to determine if these results are sustainable.
If not, you may end up buying into a value trap.
Here are four Singapore stocks you can add to your buy watchlist this month.
F J Benjamin (SGX: F10)
F J Benjamin, or FJB, is a company that builds brands and management through retail and distribution channels.
The group has a strong footprint in Southeast Asia with offices in four cities and manages over 20 brands while operating 148 stores.
The group released an encouraging set of earnings for its fiscal 2023 (FY2023) ending 30 June 2023.
Revenue rose 7% year on year to S$86.5 million with gross profit improving by 13% year on year to S$45.2 million.
Net profit increased by 19% year on year to S$3.5 million.
The group also generated a positive free cash flow of S$7.4 million for FY2023.
CEO Douglas Benjamin remains cautious about the outlook even as COVID-19 restrictions have boosted sales in the last fiscal year.
Higher costs due to inflation could be a headwind for the business.
Avenue on 3, FJB’s latest lifestyle store in Paragon, was opened in April this year and has seen an encouraging response.
Yangzijiang Financial Holding Ltd (SGX: YF8)
Yangzijiang Financial, or YZJF, provides wealth and fund management services that earn advisory income and recurring fee-based income.
The group also seeks capital appreciation and investment-related income from investments in public and private companies, debt securities, and funds.
For the first half of 2023 (1H 2023), YZJF saw total income rise 14.2% year on year to S$198.4 million.
An 18% year on year fall in interest income was more than offset by a sharp rise in non-interest income.
Net profit climbed 19.2% year on year to S$162.5 million.
YZJF is making good progress in tackling its non-performing loans (NPL) for its debt investment portfolio in China.
The NPL ratio has come down slightly from 41% at the end of 2022 to 37% as of 30 June 2023.
Meanwhile, the group plans to diversify its investments out of China by allocating half of its portfolio to such investments in the longer term.
The group will allocate around S$1 billion to investments outside of China by the end of this year.
NetLink NBN Trust (SGX: CJLU)
NetLink Group designs, builds, owns and operates Singapore’s passive fibre network infrastructure for the Nationwide Broadband Network (NBN).
The group released a good set of numbers for its recent fiscal 2024 first quarter (1Q FY2024) business update.
Revenue rose 6.2% year on year to S$103.9 million with more ancillary projects and higher residential and non-residential connection orders.
Net profit inched up 2.1% year on year to S$28.2 million.
For FY2023, the business trust declared and paid out a distribution per unit of S$0.0524, 2.1% higher than the previous year.
The number of fibre connections made by NetLink NBN Trust continues to rise.
Residential connections hit 1.489 million, up from 1.485 million just three months ago.
Non-residential connections came in at 52,500, higher than the 52,100 as of FY2023.
Non-building address points stood at 2,757 up from 2,706 over the same period.
The group intends to provide expertise and infrastructure to support the continued growth of the NBN while exploring opportunities to invest in overseas telecommunications infrastructure businesses that generate a stable cash flow.
SBS Transit (SGX: S61)
SBS Transit is a bus and rail operator that operates more than 200 bus services along with a fleet of around 3,000 buses.
The group also operates rail services on the North East MRT Line, the Downtown MRT Line, and the Light Rail Systems in Punggol and Sengkang.
For 1H 2023, revenue inched up 1.6% year on year to S$744.4 million.
The increase was due to higher rail ridership but offset by softer bus revenue as service fees were decreased.
A jump in fuel and electricity costs caused operating profit to decline by 16.1% year on year to S$36.1 million.
However, interest income grew more than 10-fold to S$6.3 million, allowing net profit to creep up 0.4% year on year to S$34.8 million.
The transport group raised its interim dividend from S$0.0545 to S$0.0558.
Management expects revenue to stabilise hereon but warned that higher costs arising from inflation could crimp profits moving ahead.
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Disclosure: Royston Yang owns shares of NetLink NBN Trust.
