Ashish Kacholia's latest stock bet has rallied 148% in past 3 months

Shares of Ador Welding (AWL) hit a new high of Rs 775 as they rallied 6 per cent on the BSE in intra-day trade on Wednesday. In the past three months, the stock has zoomed 148 per cent, as compared to an 8.6 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The company is engaged in the manufacturing of welding consumables and equipments and also has a project engineering division.

Ace investor, Ashish Kacholia added AWL to his portfolio during the April-June quarter (Q1FY22). Kacholia held 153,402 equity shares, representing a 1.13 per cent stake in AWL at the end of Q1FY22, according to the shareholding pattern filed by the company. He held nil holding in the company at the end of March quarter, the data shows. The individual entities that hold more than 1 per cent of the public shareholdings are only disclosed by the company in its shareholding pattern.

Kacholia's portfolio is closely followed by the retail investors as the marquee investor has a knack for investing in low-profile stocks that gives smart returns in the long term.

AWL aims to focus on the core welding business, reduce legacy costs while streamlining projects business to regain growth momentum and improve profitability. In the domestic welding business, it looks to focus on improving margins, realisations with the reconfiguration of manufacturing systems, cost rationalisation, advanced product developments, reduction of logistics costs and optimised product mix.

In the welding automation business, the aim is to improve the strike ratio of orders, enhance product portfolio while in project business the focus will be on flares, process equipment business, stable revenue growth, increase margins, better cash flows and reduced costs.

"AWL reported a consistent performance in the consumables segment while equipment business rebounded with margin improvement and projects business registered positive EBIT, indicating better performance, going ahead. Debt and working capital position improved further. We believe better sales volumes in consumables, rebound in equipment sales and projects business turnaround would drive growth and profitability in coming years," analysts at ICICI Securities said in a stock update. The stock was trading above the brokerage firm's target price of Rs 735 per share.