India’s Force Motors posts Q1 profit on strong demand

BENGALURU (Reuters) – India’s Force Motors on Wednesday posted a first-quarter profit, boosted by a rise in demand.

The automobile company reported a consolidated net profit of 685.6 million rupees ($8.3 million) for the quarter ended June 30, compared to a loss of 166.1 million rupees a year ago.

Revenue rose 53.2% to 14.88 billion rupees.

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KEY CONTEXT

Sales of commercial vehicles have increased amid a pick-up in construction projects, as the Indian government pushed for higher capital expenditure in its last full budget ahead of a parliamentary election due in 2024.

The company’s larger rival Ashok Leyland beat quarterly profit estimates, while Escorts Kubota reported a near-93% jump in its first-quarter profit.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment

(next 12 months)

months)

RIC PE EV/EBI Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div

TDA growth growth rating* analysts price yield

target** (%)

Force Motors NULL NaN NULL NULL Strong 1 2.05 0.36

Ltd Buy

Ashok Leyland 20.33 17.55 13.48 52.39 Buy 32 0.93 1.42

Ltd

Mahindra and 18.72 18.80 14.34 17.32 Buy 35 0.91 1.08

Mahindra Ltd

Escorts 27.39 20.80 10.50 35.77 Hold 8 1.16 0.27

Kubota Ltd

* 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-JUNE STOCK PERFORMANCE OF FORCE MOTORS VS PEERS

— All data from Refinitiv

— $1 = 82.8080 rupees

(Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)