ITC high on Q4 profit, expert says will smoke in 15% upside

Trouncing the expectations of the industry, FMCG and hotel major ITC announced its overwhelming fourth quarter (January-March) results on Friday.

ITC Q4 beats street, net up 25% to Rs 1,281.48 crore

On the back of strong growth in cigarette sales and reduced losses in other FMCG business, the company’s net profit surged 24.6% year-on-year to Rs 1,281.48 crore. Its quarterly earnings were also boosted by robust growth in hotels business revenue The net sales of he company were up 15.5% to Rs 5,836.26 crore for the three-month period. The sales of the Kolkata-based company’s FMCG base business rose 14% from a year ago to Rs 4079.85 crore. Reacting to the results, Kaustubh Pawaskar, an FMCG Analyst with Sharekhan told CNBC-TV18 that the company’s results have been in line with his expectations,“I was expecting around Rs 1,287 crore of bottom line for the quarter and PAT came in around Rs 1,282 crore,” he added.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18, research analyst of ICICI Direct, Sanjay Manyal says that this year, “the 15% price hike contributed very well to the margins of ITC” He expects to see “an upside of 15% odd” in the stock.