(Reuters) – Indian cement maker Dalmia Bharat reported a smaller-than-expected fall in fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday as higher sales volume helped offset the rollback in pricing.
Consolidated net profit fell to 3.15 billion rupees (nearly $38 million) for the quarter ended March 31, from 5.89 billion rupees a year ago. Analysts, on average, estimated the company to report a profit of 2.89 billion rupees, according to LSEG data.
The company’s revenue from operations climbed 10% to 43.07 billion rupees.
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KEY CONTEXT
Cement makers usually report strong sales volumes in the March quarter as they lower prices to clear year-end inventory backlogs. Analysts also expected lower fuel costs and a decline in domestic coke prices to help offset weak cement prices.
Cement prices declined about 5% quarter-over-quarter in India.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation (next Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment
12 months) months)
RIC PE EV/EBIT Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div
DA growth growth rating* analysts price yield
target** (%)
Dalmia Bharat Ltd 30.06 10.30 14.04 39.48 Buy 28 0.80 0.46
UltraTech Cement Ltd 29.15 17.02 11.59 32.03 Buy 34 0.90 0.40
ACC Ltd 20.91 11.43 7.68 18.54 Buy 15 0.90 0.38
Ambuja Cements Ltd 33.61 18.98 4.75 15.27 Hold 20 1.10 0.41
* 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
JANUARY-MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE
— All data from LSEG
— $1 = 83.3275 Indian rupees
(Reporting by Anisha Ajith in Bengaluru; Editing by Ravi Prakash Kumar)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibilty for its content.