(Reuters) – India Cements reported a wider adjusted loss in the first quarter on Monday, hurt by irregular monsoon and high raw material costs.
The company reported a loss before exceptional items and tax at 989.1 million rupees ($11.96 million), from 720.1 million rupees loss a year ago.
Revenue from operations fell about 4% to 13.93 billion rupees, while raw materials cost surged 13.2%.
For further results highlights, (click here)
KEY CONTEXT
While analysts expected profit in the domestic cement industry to be driven by higher government infrastructure spending in the quarter, they flagged risks from heavy monsoons that could restrict construction activities and weak cement prices.
Larger rivals Ultratech cement and Shree Cement reported higher quarterly profit on the back of robust demand.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 months) Analysts’ sentiment
months)
RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue growth Profit growth Mean rating # of analysts* Stock to price target ** Div yield (%)
India Cements Ltd 77.75 16.72 8.63 Null Sell 4 1.56 0.00
Ambuja Cements Ltd 36.21 13.60 -7.99 13.13 Hold 21 1.01 0.53
JK Lakshmi Cement 14.48 7.63 10.46 35.30 Buy 12 0.86 0.59
Ltd
Ramco Cements Ltd 25.43 13.98 10.98 59.00 Hold 20 1.03 0.23
* 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 PERFORMANCE
— All data from Refinitiv
($1 = 82.7350 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; editing by Eileen Soreng)
(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.)