BENGALURU (Reuters) – Abbott India, the Indian arm of U.S. healthcare firm Abbott Laboratories, reported a 41% rise in its first-quarter profit on Wednesday, driven by strong sales in its mainstay pharmaceuticals segment.
The company, which makes pain-reliever ibuprofen under the brand name Brufen, said its profit rose to 2.90 billion rupees ($35.02 million), compared with 2.06 billion rupees a year earlier.
Revenue from operations rose 13.4% to 14.79 billion rupees for the quarter.
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KEY CONTEXT
Abbott India, for which the pharmaceutical segment is the sole revenue generator, develops and distributes over 600 products in India, including vitamins, anti-allergic drugs and consumer care.
The company has reported a double-digit growth in its revenue for the past three quarters, led by falling operating expenses and steady sales.
Last month, peer GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals posted an 11% rise in its first-quarter profit, helped by a steady vaccines business.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation (next Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment
12 months) months)
RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div
growth growth rating* analysts price yield
target** (%)
Abbott India Ltd 44.63 32.59 13.06 14.87 Buy 7 1.06 0.76
GlaxoSmithKline 37.12 26.54 5.72 4.93 Buy 6 0.98 2.28
Pharmaceuticals Ltd
Pfizer Ltd 27.24 18.29 6.85 5.45 Strong 5 0.87 0.89
Buy
Cipla Ltd 24.69 15.76 10.82 19.32 Buy 38 1.09 0.67
* 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
APRIL TO JUNE STOCK PERFORMANCE
— All data from Refinitiv
— $1 = 82.8150 Indian rupees
(Reporting by Kashish Tandon and Biplob Kumar Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)