PLX (Vietnam National Petroleum Group, "Petrolimex") enters the final stretch before its July 31 earnings with a story that cuts two ways — a stock up 11% over the past month but slipping nearly 2.3% on the week, even as domestic peers held broadly flat or gained ground.
The week's tension is straightforward. PLX bounced 3.9% on Friday to close at VND 41,000, recovering some of a week-long drift lower. That drift stands out because the immediate peer group mostly held its ground: BSR added 4.4% on the day and PVG gained 3.3% for the week, while PVT fell 4.1% — broadly similar to PLX's weekly slide. The Vietnamese downstream and midstream names moved in a tight cluster, suggesting the week's pressure on PLX was sector-driven rather than stock-specific.
The forward earnings picture is the most compelling angle in the data right now. PLX scores in the 92nd percentile for 12-month forward EPS year-on-year growth — among the highest readings available — pointing to consensus expectations of a meaningful step up in profitability into next year. The earnings momentum score over 90 days is weaker at the 21st percentile, however, which means near-term estimate revisions have been running cool even as the longer-dated view stays strong. That divergence — strong forward growth signal, soft recent momentum — is the kind of setup where the next earnings release carries extra weight. The Q1 result on May 13 delivered a 5.4% one-day gain and a 16% five-day rally; the April 24 print went the other way, with a 6% one-day drop.
The valuation picture frames the stock as modestly priced for its sector. The PE ratio is running at roughly 14.3x, up about 0.6 points over the past 30 days, while EV/EBITDA is near 6.7x — having drifted slightly lower over the month. The PB ratio of 1.98x has also climbed about 0.1 points over 30 days. None of these moves are dramatic, but the gentle re-rating higher in PE and PB, combined with the 92nd-percentile forward growth score, reflects a market that has been willing to pay a little more for this name on improving profitability expectations. The dividend score ranks at the 76th percentile, consistent with Petrolimex's history of cash returns to shareholders, though formal dividend announcements have been sparse since 2021.
Petrolimex also launched its Vietnam Green Energy Infrastructure subsidiary in early May — a structural shift that attracted limited market attention at the time but signals the company is beginning to position itself beyond traditional petroleum distribution. The E10 biofuel story, with reported suitability across most vehicles in the Vietnamese fleet, adds a quiet regulatory tailwind to that direction of travel.
On the institutional side, the holder register is thin by global standards — eight reported holders, with CBR Investment AG the dominant external name at 0.71% of shares. Viet Fund Management trimmed 124,000 shares as of April 30, the only reported change in the holder list this period. Insider data is stale by more than three years and carries no signal for the current setup. The two analyst buy ratings on record have a mean target of VND 49,800 — implying roughly 21% upside to Friday's close — but those views are from March 2026 and should be treated as indicative rather than current.
The next formal catalyst is the July 31 earnings event. Given that the last four results have produced one-day moves ranging from -6% to +5.7% with no clear directional bias, the setup into that date — and whether the forward EPS growth signal begins to show up in near-term revisions — is the variable most worth tracking.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open PLX on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
