(Reuters) – Indian infrastructure firm NCC on Thursday reported its profit more than doubled in the second quarter, helped by higher order inflows.
Consolidated net profit rose to 1.63 billion rupees ($19.3 million) for the quarter ended Sept. 30 from 773.4 million rupees a year ago.
Revenue from operations rose 10.1% to 51.96 billion rupees. While total expenses rose 7.6% to 49.74 billion rupees, the cost of materials consumed, which forms more than a third of expenses, fell 1.2%.
For further result highlights, click
KEY CONTEXT
In the July-September period, NCC saw healthy order inflows worth 35 billion rupees, led by buildings and transportation orders, analysts at Elara Capital said in a pre-earnings note.
Construction companies also benefited from lower prices of key raw materials. Domestic steel prices dropped to an over three-year low in the quarter, per data from commodities consultancy BigMint. Cement prices hit a five-year low in the quarter amid ample supply, according to Ambit Capital.
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** (%)
NCC NULL 8.61 15.77 32.04 Buy 10 0.87 0.71
KNR 18.95 12.99 6.84 1.25 Buy 13 0.90 0.08
Constructions
PNC Infratech 11.59 13.64 1.14 -4.77 Buy 14 0.66 0.18
Ashoka 14.50 13.61 7.76 47.41 Buy 8 0.97 Null
Buildcon
* 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 = 84.3340 Indian rupees
(Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng)
