Hero MotoCorp dips 2% as Q4 profit falls 26%; ICICI Sec downgrades stock

Shares of Hero MotoCorp snapped the four-day winning streak and fell as much as much as 2.25 per cent to Rs 2,331.85 on the BSE after the two-wheeler maker reported a 26.46 per cent decline in consolidated profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 613.81 crore for the quarter ended March 31 (Q4FY20)

Revenue from operations during the quarter under review stood at Rs 6,333.89 crore as against Rs 8,120.73 crore in the same quarter a year ago, Hero MotoCorp said in a regulatory filing, adding that it sold 1,323,000 two-wheeler units during the quarter.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, the company posted a consolidated PAT of Rs 3,641.12 crore as compared with Rs 3,451.37 crore in the previous fiscal. Revenue from operations in 2019-20 stood at Rs 29,255.32 crore. In FY20, Hero MotoCorp said it clocked sales of 6,398,000 two-wheeler units.

Hero MotoCorp CFO Niranjan Gupta said that as the company marches towards rapid recovery from lockdown, it has taken several measures towards saving cost, improving productivity of spends, and conserving cash.

"We have rationalized capex spends for the financial year by half, doubled target for the Leap-II program (cost cutting), and launched an initiative to improve the productivity of our overheads," he said.

"All these initiatives, coupled with new launches and innovative digital solution for sales and marketing, "will help us to tackle the uncertainties caused by the pandemic", Gupta said.

At 9:45 AM, the stock was trading 1.95 per cent lower as compared to 0.36 per cent gain in the S&P BSE Sensex. Around 6 lakh shares have already changed hands on the NSE and BSE combined. In the last one month (till June 9), the stock had rallied 14.34 per cent as compared to Sensex's 7.58 per cent gain in the same period, ACE Equity data shows.

ICICI Securities downgraded the stock from 'Add' to 'Hold' with the revised target price of Rs 2,386 (earlier Rs 2,251). post the Q4 results.

"We believe HMCL has potential growth tailwinds in H2FY21 from rural recovery, and downtrading in motorcycles. However, in case urban (high Covid impact) customers seek increased personal transportation scooter segment could stand to gain, HMCL remains a weaker player in this category. We like the stock, however, the recent rally (around 50 per cent) has minimized our valuation comfort. We cut our EPS for FY21E/FY22E by -8.8%/0.8%, respectively, while maintaining our target multiple at 15x FY22E EPS," the brokerage said in its rating rationale.