Strides Pharma hits 52-week low, slumps 9% on weak Q2 results

Shares of Strides Pharma Science hit a 52-week low of Rs 503.25, as they slipped 9 per cent on the BSE in Wednesday’s intra-day trade after the company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 84.7 crore in September quarter (Q2FY22), due to lower revenues. The pharmaceutical company had posted profit after tax of Rs 79.2 crore in a year ago quarter.

The company’s revenues during the quarter under review declined 8 per cent year on year to Rs 736 crore from Rs 797 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal. In Q2FY22, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) stood at Rs 1 crore against Rs 165.6 crore in Q2FY21.

The management said a muted sales performance accompanied with a drop in gross margins and relatively higher operating costs has led to a negative operating leverage in H1 (April-September) period. While cost measures have been initiated to improve operating leverage, the shift will be visible in the coming quarters, it added.

Commenting on the performance, Dr R Ananthanarayanan, Managing Director & CEO said, “We continue to face headwinds in our US business. While we have been able to retain volume share on our key products, we continued to witness price challenges in our portfolio during the quarter, magnified by concentration towards acute products.”

While there are near term headwinds, we remain optimistic on the US business in the long run. We will start witnessing improvement in our US business starting Q3FY22 and will continue the growth momentum there on. Given the volatile dynamics we believe we will only be able to achieve our current year guided outlook for US in FY23, Ananthanarayanan said.

At 02:40 pm; the stock was trading 7 per cent lower at Rs 512, as compared to 0.05 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. With today’s fall, the stock corrected nearly 50 per cent from its 52-week high level of Rs 1,000 touched on January 8, 2021. The trading volumes on the counter jumped six-fold with a combined 2.7 million equity shares were changing hands on the NSE and BSE.