Abbott India’s profit climbs on healthy pharmaceutical demand

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(Reuters) -Drugmaker Abbott India reported an 11.5% rise in first-quarter profit on Tuesday, driven by healthy sales in its mainstay pharmaceuticals segment.

The company, known for its PediaSure nutrition drink, reported a profit of 3.66 billion rupees ($41.77 million) for the quarter ended June 30, up from 3.28 billion rupees a year ago.

Revenue from operations climbed 11.6% to 17.38 billion rupees.

KEY CONTEXT

Chronic therapies and price-led gains are expected to drive nearly 10% growth in India’s pharmaceutical market in the June quarter, analysts said. Abbott, which has a strong presence in chronic treatments such as thyroid and diabetes drugs, is seen leading growth among multinational peers.

Peer JB Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals last month posted an 8.9% higher quarterly profit, led by healthy domestic demand for its drugs.

PEER COMPARISON   

  Valuation Estimates (next Analysts’ sentiment

(next 12 12 months)

months)

  RIC PE EV/EBI Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to price Div

TDA growth( growth( rating* analysts target** yield(%)

%) %)

Abbott India 43.59 33.53 7.56 12.31 Strong 6 0.93 1.46

Buy

GlaxoSmithKline 42.29 31.47 8.92 11.72 Buy 4 0.87 1.54

Pharmaceuticals

Torrent 46.26 27.15 12.61 25.39 Buy 29 0.93 0.91

Pharmaceuticals

J B Chemicals and 31.65 20.48 12.23 18.57 Buy 12 0.86 0.74

Pharmaceuticals 

 * Mean of analysts’ ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell** Ratio of the stock’s last close to analysts’ mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

APRIL-JUNE STOCK PERFORMANCE

— All data from LSEG

— $1 = 87.6162 Indian rupees

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar)