China's state media warns Moutai stock too hot

It’s not often that China’s official media agency takes aim at a specific stock. But that’s what happened to Kweichow Moutai on Thursday, when Xinhua News Agency said shares in China’s biggest liquor maker should rise at a slower pace. Within hours, the company had made its own stock exchange filing, says it hopes investors are cautious in making decisions, and that analysts’ share price targets and valuations in the market are “overly high.” The stock dropped 2% at 9:36 a.m. in Shanghai. Moutai has more than doubled this year, with Goldman Sachs Group alone raising its target on the company 11 times, as investors embraced the company’s profitable strategy of targeting the mass market. The company, which earlier this year overtook Diageo Plc as the world’s most-valuable distiller, is now trading at 30 times estimated earnings, its highest valuation in seven years, Bloomberg reports.