BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian agricultural chemicals maker Coromandel International Ltd reported a 15% fall in its quarterly profit on Monday, as soaring costs offset growing demand.
Consolidated net profit after tax for the quarter rose to 2.46 billion rupees ($30.08 million), compared with 2.9 billion rupees a year earlier.
Revenue from operations rose nearly 30% to 54.76 billion rupees, but was outpaced by a 32% increase in total expenses.
WHY IT MATTERS
Coromandel has reported a rise in quarterly profit in the last four quarters, as increased crop sowing and firm crop prices bolstered the demand for its products.
While the fertiliser sector witnessed high channel inventory in the fourth quarter driven by slight growth in demand and cooling raw material prices, reduced pest infestations have dented the consumption of pesticides, analysts said.
Also Read
Last week, peer UPL Ltd reported a 42% fall in its Q4 profit, hurt by rising raw material costs.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation Estimates Analyst
(next 12 (next 12 s'
months) months) sentime
nt
RIC PE EV/EBI Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div
TDA growth growth rating* analyst price yield
s target** (%)
Coromandel 14.01 9.78 -19.33 1.18 Strong 10 0.80 1.24
International Ltd Buy
UPL Ltd 10.76 6.05 6.75 19.37 Buy 23 0.74 1.47
Sumitomo Chemical 31.64 21.47 15.89 23.00 Strong 8 0.74 0.25
India Ltd Buy
SRF Ltd 30.32 18.62 12.76 11.61 Buy 25 0.87 0.28
* 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
JAN-MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE
-- All data from Refinitiv
-- $1 = 81.78 Indian rupees
(Reporting by Kashish Tandon and Hritam Mukherjee)
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
