India's JK Lakshmi Cement reports 69% jump in Q3 profit

JK Lakshmi Cement

08/02/2024 13:09

BENGALURU, Feb 8 (Reuters) - India's JK Lakshmi Cement  JKLC.NS  reported a 69% rise in third-quarter profit on Thursday on healthy
demand and higher prices.
    The company, the construction materials arm of JK Group, said net profit after tax rose to 1.24 billion rupees (around $15 mln) for the
quarter ended Dec. 31, from 735.9 million rupees a year earlier.
    Revenue from operations rose 6.6% to 15.86 billion rupees. Power and fuel costs, JK Lakshmi's biggest expense, fell around 25%.
    For more details,  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN3ET0WK

    
    KEY CONTEXT 
    The housing and infrastructure sectors have seen a demand surge, aided by higher government spending ahead of the national elections,
boosting cement makers' bottom lines.
    Cement prices also saw a 2.5% sequential rise during the quarter, brokerage Systematix said, helping cement makers earn more from their
sales.
    Larger rivals UltraTech Cement  ULTC.NS  and ACC Ltd  ACC.NS  beat December-quarter profit estimates on price hikes and strong
infrastructure demand.
    On the other hand, Ambuja Cements  ABUJ.NS  and India Cements  ICMN.NS  saw subdued demand in the quarter. 
    
    PEER COMPARISON 
    
                                   Valuation (next 12 months)    Estimates (next 12 months)           Analysts' sentiment              
                      RIC          PE         EV/EBITDA          Revenue growth     Profit growth     Mean     No. of   Stock to       Div
                                                                 (%)                (%)               rating*  analyst  price          yield
                                                                                                               s        target**       (%)
 JK Lakshmi Cement     JKLC.NS     14.48      10.02              10.86              28.16             Buy      11       1.09           0.41
 UltraTech Cement      ULTC.NS     33.00      18.67              11.14              31.14             Buy      34       0.97           0.37
 Shree Cement          SHCM.NS     39.21      19.34              10.31              23.67             Hold     17       1.01           0.37
 ACC Ltd               ACC.NS      22.09      11.82              4.61               20.09             Buy      15       0.94           0.37
 
    * 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
    
    OCTOBER-DECEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE
    
    
    
    -- All data from LSEG
    -- $1 = 82.9620 Indian rupees

    <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
JK LAKSHMI OCT-DEC STOCK PERFORMANCE    https://tmsnrt.rs/4buC3JZ
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
 (Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng)
 ((Manvi.Pant@thomsonreuters.com; +918447554364;))