Post January-March 2018 (Q4FY18) results, the stock of graphite electrode manufacturer has outperformed the market by surging 48% from Rs 730 on May 11, 2018. On comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 6.3% during the same period.
Graphite India had reported a seven-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 4.54 billion in Q4FY18 driven by improved realization and higher capacity utilization. It had profit of Rs 620 million in the same period last year.
Net sales of the company rose more than double from Rs 3.73 billion to Rs 12.12 billion on account of improved realizations and increased sales volume. EBIDTA (Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) margins improved from 12% in Q4FY17 to 58% in Q4FY18 supported by improved realization with higher volume and optimum capacity utilization.
For Q1FY19, ICICI Securities expect the Graphite India’s capacity utilisation levels to remain elevated at around 90%.
“The consistent increase in realisations are likely to boost the topline to Rs 15.68 billion, up 346.7% YoY and 29.3% QoQ. We expect the EBITDA to come in at Rs 9.95 billion, implying an EBITDA margin of 63.5% (vs. 55.2% in Q4FY18 and 10.1% in Q1FY18). We expect the company to report a healthy PAT of Rs 6.63 billion,” the brokerage firm expects Q1FY19 result preview.
At 12:00 PM; the stock was trading 1.6% higher at Rs 1,072 against 0.52% gain in the benchmark index. A combined 551,577 equity shares changed hands on the counter on the BSE and NSE.