(Reuters) – India’s JK Lakshmi Cement reported a nearly 91% slide in its second-quarter profit on Wednesday, hurt by a decline in sales volume and cement prices.
The company’s profit after tax fell to 75.4 million rupees (about $894,500) for the quarter ended Sept. 30, from 830.3 million rupees a year ago.
Revenue from operations dropped 21.4% to 11.41 billion rupees.
Sales volume fell 14% to 1.87 million tonnes during the quarter.
For further earnings highlights, click.
KEY CONTEXT
Cement prices hit a five-year low in the September quarter, Ambit Capital said, due to an industry-wide ramp-up in production as companies prepared to fill medium-term demand expectations.
Last month, market leader UltraTech Cement posted its first quarterly revenue drop in four years due to low cement prices but flagged early signs of price recovery.
The second quarter is also considered a seasonally weak period for cement makers as demand is subdued due to the monsoons, resulting in muted construction activity.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment
(next 12 months)
months)
RIC PE EV/EBI Revenue Profit Mean No of Stock to price Div
TDA growth growth rating* analysts target** yield
(%)
JK Lakshmi Cement 18.84 8.91 8.91 14.37 Hold 11 0.93 0.80
India Cements 128.78 25.12 4.98 NULL Sell 5 1.44 0.00
Ramco Cements 39.22 13.78 8.28 31.97 Hold 19 1.01 0.28
Nuvoco Vistas 51.50 10.06 4.89 103.90 Hold 15 0.96 NULL
Corporation
* 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 = 84.2940 Indian rupees
(Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru; Editing by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan)
