India’s PC Jeweller posts profit in Q3 on strong festive demand

(Reuters) – India’s PC Jeweller posted a profit in the third quarter on Tuesday, driven by demand for jewellery during the festival and wedding season.

The company posted a consolidated net profit of 1.48 billion rupees ($17 million) in the quarter ending Dec. 31, compared with a loss of 1.98 billion rupees a year earlier and a profit of 1.79 billion rupees in the previous quarter.

Revenue from operations saw a near sixteen-fold surge to 6.39 billion rupees.

For further results highlights, click [Full story].

KEY CONTEXT

Major festivals and the wedding season during the quarter fueled demand for gold jewellery while higher gold prices pushed consumers to choose lighter and lower-carat jewellery.

PC Jeweller faced liquidity squeeze due to disputes with some of its lenders in the previous quarters and had offered one-time settlements to the banks, which had hurt its profitability.

Peer Kalyan Jewellers posted higher profit in the third quarter owing to robust festive and wedding-season demand, while larger peer Titan beat third-quarter profit estimates.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment

months) months)

RIC PE EV/EBITD Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div

A growth (%) growth (%) rating* analyst price yield

s target** (%)

PC Jeweller 9.04 – 16 20 Buy 1 0.49 –

Titan Company 67.95 46.30 14.19 29.31 Buy 22 0.97 0.31

Kalyan Jewellers 54.54 31.11 28.96 39.45 Strong Buy 8 0.82 0.24

Senco Gold 29.03 18.01 18.57 30.21 Strong Buy 6 0.72 0.20

* Mean of analysts’ ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** Ratio of the stock’s last close to analysts’ mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

OCTOBER-DECEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE

— All data from LSEG– $1 = 87.0740 Indian rupees

(Reporting by Ashna Teresa Britto; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)