AAC TECH (02018.HK) +0.980 (+2.505%) Short selling $39.33M; Ratio 36.423% closed down 6.1% yesterday (20th), but rebounded today (21st), hitting a peak of HKD40.52. It was last reported at HKD40.1 in the afternoon session, up 2.51%, with trading volume of 4.0712 million shares and turnover of HKD162 million.

BofAS said in a research report that AAC TECH's revenue in 1H26 was broadly in line with its expectations. Net profit rose 3% YoY to RMB901 million, 7% above the broker's forecast mainly due to a lower tax rate, but 11% below market expectations. Management expects full-year revenue in 2026 to record double-digit YoY growth, while gross margin should improve steadily.

BofAS believes AAC TECH's traditional businesses remain solid, while increasing contributions from AI-related businesses are the key reasons for reiterating its "Buy" rating. The broker slightly adjusted its 2026-2027 earnings forecasts to reflect the results performance and introduced its 2028 forecast. It rolled forward the valuation basis to the forecast price-to-earnings ratio for 2H26-1H27 and raised the TP from HKD49 to HKD52, based on 18x forecast price-to-earnings ratio, roughly equivalent to about 0.5 standard deviations below the stock's 10-year historical average. The broker said factors including profit and earnings improvement driven by Apple products and expansion of the automotive business support the valuation, while also reflecting market concerns over overall smartphone shipments in 2026. It forecast EPS of HKD2.68, HKD3.14 and HKD3.85 for 2026 to 2028 respectively. (ad/da)(HK stocks quote is delayed for at least 15 mins.Short Selling Data as at 2026-08-21 12:25.)