(Reuters) – Indian agricultural chemicals firm Coromandel International posted a fourth straight fall in quarterly profit on Thursday, hurt by higher costs.
Consolidated profit after tax fell 12.3% to 6.64 billion rupees ($79 million) for the quarter ended Sept.30 from 7.57 billion rupees a year earlier.
Revenue from operations rose 6.4% to 74.33 billion rupees, while total expenses jumped 9.3% to 65.93 billion rupees, led by higher cost of materials consumed.
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KEY CONTEXT
Analysts have flagged the high fertiliser and agricultural chemicals inventory and destocking for the past few quarters, which has pressured prices.
Brokerage Elara Capital said in a pre-earning note that agrochemical demand has improved but continued supplies from China have meant that there is little visibility of price increase in the near term, which is making it tough for many domestic companies to sell at a profit.
Peer SRF posted a steeper-than-expected drop in its September quarter profit on Tuesday, hurt by sustained weak demand in its mainstay chemicals business and due to higher costs.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation (next Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment
12 months) months)
RIC PE EV/EBIT Revenue Profit Mean No of Stock to Div
DA growth growth rating* analysts price yield
target** (%)
Coromandel 22.82 14.83 6.31 15.40 Buy 9 0.87 0.37
International
Ltd
SRF Ltd 34.23 19.31 14.83 27.79 Hold 26 0.93 0.32
BASF India Ltd 33.66 21.62 11.89 30.14 Hold 1 1.24 0.19
Deepak 14.91 8.57 NULL 32.74 Buy 1 0.86 0.86
Fertilisers and
Petrochemicals
Corp Ltd
* 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
JULY-SEPTEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE
— All data from LSEG IBES
— $1 = 84.0460 Indian rupees
(Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
