Ashok Leyland on good roads

Ashok Leyland is doing pretty well on the bourses today despite the fall in Q3 net profit, with the stock price going up almost 7% to Rs.92.65. Volumes are up over 3 times and its 52-week high is at Rs.112.80.

The company posted a good show for Q3FY17. Total income rose 8% (YoY) at Rs.4724 crore but net profit fell 13% to Rs.186 crore and this was on account of forex loss of Rs.64 crore.

EBITDA was up 1% at Rs.454 crore but margins slipped from 10.92% to 10.25%. Apart from the forex loss, the 30.5% rise in raw material costs and overall 9% increase in costs is what affected the bottomline.

The good part – interest costs for the quarter were down 48% and the company’s 9MFY17 net profit of Rs.771 crore is already 113% of FY16 net profit. Annualised EPS stands at Rs.3.6 (FV of Re.1) on an equity capital of Rs.284.59 crore.