Ceat Shares Hit 52-Week High As Q3 Profit More Than Doubles

On Wednesday, shares of Ceat Limited rose as much as 6.2% to hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 1,353 on NSE after the company reported strong earnings for the December-ended quarter.

Its consolidated net profit more-than-doubled to Rs 132 crore in December 2020 from Rs 53 crore in December 2019. Net revenue from operations grew by 26% at Rs 2,221 crore against Rs 1,762 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal.

Ceat Limited reported EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) margin expansion of 460 basis points (bps) at 15.3% for the third quarter of FY21, over the same period a year ago.

"This quarter's growth has been achieved on the back of new capacities across segments, particularly passenger car, two-wheeler and farm segments," said Ceat's Managing Director Anant Goenka.

"All our factories are currently operating at high capacity levels and we are confident in maintaining strong growth levels over the next few months. There is expected to be some margin pressure in the next quarter due to increasing raw material prices," he added.

During the quarter, the company's continuous effort to judiciously manage cash helped in bringing down debt by Rs 260 crore and helped in qualitative improvement in the leverage ratios and the company's balance sheet, Ceat Ltd CFO Kumar Subbiah said.