 "HUL surges on upbeat Q4 earnings")
Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has moved higher by 6% to Rs 488, bouncing back 7.4% from its intra-day low, after reporting a better-than-expected 18% year-on-year (yoy) jump in standalone net profit at Rs 787 crore for the quarter ended March (Q4), on back of strong volume growth. Income from operations grew 12% at Rs 6,466 crore on yoy basis.
Analysts on an average had expected sales of Rs 6,360 crore and profit of Rs 770 crore from fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) major.
“During the quarter, the domestic consumer business grew at 13% with strong 6% underlying volume growth,” HUL said in a statement. The company had registered underlying volume growth 5% in December quarter.
“In a challenging environment, we have delivered broad based competitive growth and margin improvement,” says Harish Manwani, chairman of the company.
While there are near term concerns around slowing market growth and inflationary pressures on consumers, we are confident of the medium to long term growth prospects of the FMCG sector and remain focused on delivering consistent and competitive growth with sustainable operating margin improvement, he added.
The company’s operating profit margin improved by 60 bps to 14% from 13.35% during the recently concluded quarter.
The stock opened at Rs 465 and hit a low of Rs 457 on BSE before announcement of Q4 results. The counter has seen over four-fold jump in trading volumes with a combined 8.5 million shares changing hands till 1423 hours on BSE and NSE.
Meanwhile, the board of directors has proposed a final dividend of Rs 6 per share for the financial year ending 31st March, 2013.
Analysts on an average had expected sales of Rs 6,360 crore and profit of Rs 770 crore from fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) major.
“During the quarter, the domestic consumer business grew at 13% with strong 6% underlying volume growth,” HUL said in a statement. The company had registered underlying volume growth 5% in December quarter.
“In a challenging environment, we have delivered broad based competitive growth and margin improvement,” says Harish Manwani, chairman of the company.
While there are near term concerns around slowing market growth and inflationary pressures on consumers, we are confident of the medium to long term growth prospects of the FMCG sector and remain focused on delivering consistent and competitive growth with sustainable operating margin improvement, he added.
The company’s operating profit margin improved by 60 bps to 14% from 13.35% during the recently concluded quarter.
The stock opened at Rs 465 and hit a low of Rs 457 on BSE before announcement of Q4 results. The counter has seen over four-fold jump in trading volumes with a combined 8.5 million shares changing hands till 1423 hours on BSE and NSE.
Meanwhile, the board of directors has proposed a final dividend of Rs 6 per share for the financial year ending 31st March, 2013.