BENGALURU – India’s Blue Star beat first-quarter profit estimates on Tuesday as the launch of dozens of new air conditioner models helped the appliance maker tap into customer demand during the summer’s unprecedented heatwaves.
Blue Star’s consolidated net profit rose 102.6% to 1.69 billion rupees ($20.14 million) for the three months ended June 30, surpassing analysts’ expectations of 1.41 billion rupees, according to LSEG data.
Revenue from its segment that makes ACs and commercial refrigerators jumped 44%, boosting its total revenue from operations by 28.7% to 28.65 billion rupees.
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KEY CONTEXT
Indians battled extreme heat during this summer from March to May, leading to a surge in demand for air-conditioners.
Analysts had previously said they expect AC and cooler makers’ sales to grow during the quarter, as more people sought ways to cool down.
They also flagged elevated prices of raw materials such as copper and aluminium.
Last month, peer Crompton Greaves beat quarterly profit estimates, helped by higher demand for fans and coolers, although Havells India missed estimates, weighed by increased costs.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment
months) months)
RIC PE EV/EBIT Price/S Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div
DA ales growth(%) growth(%) rating* analysts price yield
target** (%)
Blue Star Ltd BLUS.NS 57.30 37.77 NULL 20.72 35.24 Buy 19 1.21 0.40
Voltas Ltd VOLT.NS 58.68 43.97 2.58 16.43 100.80 Hold 34 1.12 0.36
Havells India Ltd HVEL.NS 64.92 44.08 5.02 20.28 26.76 Buy 21 0.97 0.49
Crompton Greaves Consumer CROP.NS 45.31 29.86 2.82 12.79 31.38 Buy 31 0.96 0.67
Electricals Ltd
* 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
APRIL-JUNE STOCK PERFORMANCE
— All data from LSEG
(Reporting by Aleef Jahan; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
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