Bajaj Auto share price falls 3% as December 2024 sales miss estimates

Bajaj Auto share price: Bajaj Auto's December 2024 sales fell 1 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to 3,23,125 units from 3,26,806 units sold in December 2023

Bajaj Auto December sales: Bajaj Auto share price today dropped 2.8 per cent to Rs 8,551 per share on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday, January 1, 2025. The decline in Bajaj Auto share price came after the two-wheeler company reported its December 2024 sales data.  Notably, Bajaj Auto shares fell to their nine-month low today, and hit their lowest level since March 19, 2024. 

 

According to Bajaj Auto, its December 2024 sales fell 1 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to 3,23,125 units from 3,26,806 units sold in December 2023.

 

Analysts at Nuvama Institutional Equities expected Bajaj Auto to post a 4 per cent Y-o-Y increase in total sales to 340,000 units.

 

 

The drag was largely on account of weak domestic sales. Bajaj Auto’s domestic two-wheeler sales fell 19 per cent Y-o-Y to 1,28,335 units, down from 1,58,370 units sold in December 2023. Including domestic commercial vehicle sales (up 5 per cent Y-o-Y), Bajaj Auto’s total domestic sales fell by 15 per cent Y-o-Y to 1,62,420 units.

 

Bajaj Auto’s exports, however, were strong in both the segments. Two-wheelers’ exports rose 15 per cent Y-o-Y to 1,43,838 units, while commercial vehicles’ exports climbed 50 per cent Y-o-Y to 16,867 units.

 

Total commercial vehicle sales, thus, jumped 18 per cent Y-o-Y for Bajaj Auto to 1,60,705 units in December 2024.

 

Meanwhile, on a year-to-date (Y-T-D) basis, Bajaj Auto’s total sales during the April to December 2024 period increased 8 per cent Y-o-Y to 35,48,032 units. This included 21,74,437 units (up 6 per cent Y-o-Y) of total domestic sales and 13,73,595 units (up 12 per cent Y-o-Y) of total commercial vehicle sales.

 

At 9:45 AM, Bajaj Auto share price on NSE was down 1.8 per cent at Rs 8,658 per share. By comparison, the NSE Nifty50 index today was down 0.18 per cent.

 

Bajaj Auto is one of India's leading two and three-wheeler manufacturing companies. It is engaged in the development, manufacturing, and distribution of automobiles such as motorcycles, commercial vehicles, electric two-wheelers etc.

 

Bajaj Auto shares are down 33 per cent from their all-time high of Rs 12,772.15 per share, which it hit on September 27, 2024. Bajaj Auto has a market capitalisation of Rs 2.41 trillion at present.

 

According to analysts at Emkay Global Financial Services, the steep correction in 2W stocks from their recent peaks is unwarranted.

 

"We believe the outlook on exports is improving and is poised for a sharp recovery, as bulk of the macro challenges in the highly under-penetrated key African markets like Nigeria are now largely behind and Latin America is seeing sustained growth," analysts at the brokerage said.

 

They expect exports to drive the growth momentum in 2Ws, with 16-21 per cent volume CAGR over FY24-27, which would imply 1 per cent CAGR from peak for Bajaj Auto. This would happen even as growth in the domestic industry is likely to moderate to 7 per cent/8 per cent for FY26E/27E, implying 1.3 per cent CAGR over FY19-27E (vs 12 per cent in FY25E).

 

"We upgrade Bajaj Auto to 'Add' from 'Sell' with an unchanged target price of Rs 9,500. The recent stock-price correction (down over 30 per cent from the recent peak) adequately captures the weakened positioning in domestic 2Ws as well as normalised the 3W volumes ahead, even as the company would benefit from exports recovery, and has emerged as the leader in electric 2W sales in December, 2024," Emkay Global said.