BENGALURU (Reuters) – Dr. Lal PathLabs reported first-quarter profit above expectations on Wednesday on strong demand for its medical tests in smaller cities and towns amidst rising awareness for health and wellness in India.
Shares of the diagnostic firm rose as much as 6% to hit the day’s highest, before closing up 3.4%.
Consolidated net profit rose 28% to 1.06 billion rupees (around $13 million) for the quarter ended June 30, beating analysts’ estimate of 992.7 million rupees, per LSEG.
“Tier 3 and Tier 4 towns continue to show higher compounded growth within the network,” Dr. Lal PathLabs Chief Executive Officer-designate Shankha Banerjee said.
The company, which operates about 300 labs in the country said its number of samples tested climbed 9.3%.
This drove its total revenue from operations up 11% to 6.02 billion rupees.
Rival Metropolis Healthcare is set to report its June quarter results on Saturday.
($1 = 83.9410 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
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