Hope COOP will show clear signs of catching up with those two sooner than later.

With the market seeming to have divorced politics from its activities, it is high time i jumped back to this market.

My predictions about KCB hitting Ksh 40 before April 2013 (predicted about 7 months ago:(> 10 % Dividend Yield........my new yard stick in NSE stock picking) seem to have been spot on. I had however exited earlier, based on my cautionary approach regarding the elections. No regrets...... sometimes you have to forgo potential gains in order to preserve capital.

My 1st play for this year is Coop Bank. I have been accumulating it since the beginning of the week at about Ksh 15.

Coop Bank at todays price (Ksh 16.30) is trading at a P/E 8.86 (Compared to Equity - 10.2; KCB - 9.92).

It is also trading at a P/B of about 2.3 which is also lower than the two banks above. It is trading at cum dividend (Dividend of Ksh 0.50 for year ending Dec 2012 which was a 25% rise as compared to dividend for 2011)

Its ROE of about 26% is higher than the sector average of about 23%.

Its Profit after tax (PAT) for year ending Dec 2012 versus Dec 2011 was a rise of 43.7% (compared to Equity PAT 17%; KCB PAT 11%).

It has set a target of doubling its agency network in 2013 from 5,000 to 10,000 agents in Kenya.It is also set to start its South Sudan operations in April 2013 via a joint partnership with the Government of South Sudan. This is a very interesting partnership that should give coop bank a serious competitive advantage in that market.

My price target is a minimum of Ksh 20 once this elections are dusted (a 22% upside potential); and a 12 months target price of Ksh 27.50 based on an estimated EPS of Ksh 2.30 for year ending December 2013.

Happy Hunting.

Twitter:stocksmaster@stocksmaster79

What is there to revise? Hii kitu itafika 27.5 and even higher. 20 will be broken in next two weeks