(Reuters) – Drugmaker Abbott India reported a jump in third-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by strong demand for its gastrointestinal and heart disease medications, sending shares higher.
The company reported a profit of 3.61 billion rupees ($41.4 million) for the quarter ended Dec. 31, up 16% from a year ago.
Revenue from operations climbed 12% to 16.14 billion rupees.
Shares of the company rose 3.5% after results.
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KEY CONTEXT
Anti-diabetic, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal drugs, which form a major chunk of Abbott India’s drugs portfolio, saw the highest demand during the quarter, Elara Capital analysts said.
Analysts have previously noted that price hikes for drugs that were excluded from India’s “essential medicines list” helped earnings for drugmakers that earn most of their revenue from domestic sales, such as Abbott.
PEER COMPARISON
Estimates (next Analysts’ sentiment
12 months)
RIC PE EV/EBI Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div
TDA growth growth rating* analysts price yield
(%) (%) target** (%)
Abbott India Ltd 37.31 29.15 10.66 13.00 Strong 4 0.83 1.57
Buy
GlaxoSmithKline 34.52 25.15 9.59 20.97 Buy 4 0.70 1.63
Pharmaceuticals Ltd
Glenmark 23.98 13.92 11.33 54.31 Buy 10 0.84 0.17
Pharmaceuticals Ltd
Pfizer Ltd 28.50 21.95 8.22 12.92 Buy 3 0.74 0.79
* 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 TO DECEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE
— All data from LSEG
— $1 = 87.2850 Indian rupees
(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)
