Astral shares plunge 6% as Q2 results miss estimates; company declares dividend

Astral share price plunged over 6 percent on October 19, a day after it reported below-estimate numbers for the quarter ended September 2023. Though the company’s net profit jumped 90 percent and revenue rose by 16 percent, it missed street expectations. Improvement in the building material and equipment firm’s EBITDA margin to 16.1 percent also failed to impress.

Astral shares were trading at Rs 1,848.70 on the National Stock Exchange at 2:07 pm, down 5 percent from the previous closing price.

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Q2 numbers

Astral’s jump in net profit nearly doubled year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 131.2 crore for the July-September quarter. Its total revenue stood at Rs 1,363 crore during the period under review, up 16.3 percent YoY.

At the operating level, company’s Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) increased 53 percent YoY to Rs 220 crore.

Outlook

Despite the Q2 numbers missing estimates, brokerage firm Prabhudas Lilladher still believes that Astral is a consistent quality performer and it is a compounding story. “With strong performance in H1 FY24 and strong volume guidance of 15-20 percent with margin improvement in FY24, we maintain our FY24 estimates with 22 percent revenue growth with 18.2 percent EBITDA margin in H2FY24,” it said.

Astral declares dividend

The company also declared an interim dividend for the financial year 2023-24 at the rate of Rs 1.50 per share of face value of Re 1 each. The record date for determining the shareholders entitled to payment of the said interim dividend has been fixed as October 27, 2023.

Also Read | South Indian Bank Q2 Results: Net profit jumps over 23% to Rs 275 cr, asset quality stable

Despite the sharp fall in Astral share price on October 19, the stock is up 25 percent on a year-to-date basis, compared to a 9 percent rise in benchmark Nifty 50.

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