(Reuters) -India’s Ambuja Cements reported a 74.5% jump in fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday, helped by growth in sales volumes in a seasonally strong quarter.
Profit after tax rose to 9.29 billion rupees ($109 million) in the quarter ended March 31.
Overall revenue rose 19%, with sales volumes growing 13%.
Shares of the company were last down about 1% amid a muted broader market. [.BO]
For further earnings highlights, (click here).
KEY CONTEXT
The weather in India during the January-March period is usually favourable for construction activities, which spurs demand for cement. Cement mills typically cash in on this, pushing to meet fiscal year-end targets and boosting their volumes.
Cement prices also began to recover in the past few months, reversing from declines logged for the bulk of last year. However, the average all-India cement price for the March quarter was 2% lower on-year, data from brokerage Ambit Capital showed.
As a result, the sector has furnished a mixed bag of results in the reporting quarter. Higher expenses weighed on profits for fellow Adani group company ACC, while bigger rival UltraTech Cement missed profit estimates on soft cement prices.
Meanwhile, cost control efforts helped Dalmia Bharat offset soft prices and lower volumes.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment
months) months)
RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue Profit Mean No. of Stock to Div
growth (%) growth rating* analyst price yield
(%) s target** (%)
Ambuja Cements Ltd 39.66 15.63 19.78 16.70 Buy 33 0.89 0.36
ACC Ltd 17.85 9.32 11.25 -12.80 Buy 19 0.84 0.39
UltraTech Cement 38.52 20.94 17.92 42.59 Buy 35 0.98 0.57
Ltd
Shree Cement Ltd 59.08 21.41 16.06 68.54 Hold 17 1.10 0.34
* The mean of analyst ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell
** The ratio of the stock’s last close to analysts’ mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT
JANUARY TO MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE
— All data from LSEG
— $1 = 85.2175 Indian rupees
(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
