CEAT stock plunges 9% as Q4 net misses Street expectations

CEAT stock reacts to Q4 earnings; CEAT March quarter net dipped 23 per cent YoY to Rs 102 crore as against the Bloomberg analyst expectations of Rs 169 crore.

CEAT stock price plunged 9 per cent to Rs 2,383 apiece on the BSE in Friday's intraday trade after the tyre maker reported March quarter (Q4) result for the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), missing Street estimates.

At 10:40 AM, however, the stock had trimmed losses partially and was quoting 4 per cent lower at Rs 2,517. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 200 points (0.23 per cent).

In the recently concluded Q4FY24, CEAT reported a 23 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 102 crore as against a net profit of Rs 132 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal (Q4FY23).

This came after the company's exceptional item soared to Rs 58 crore from Rs 9 crore year-on-year.

Analysts at Bloomberg had pegged net profit at Rs 168.77 crore.

Meanwhile, CEAT's revenue rose 4.07 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 2,991.85 crore as against Bloomberg's estimate of Rs 3,055.48 crore. 

Ebitda, too, grew lower-than-expected at Rs 391.51 crore compared with the estimate of Rs 454 crore.

Ebitda margin stood at 13.08 per cent (up 29 basis points) as against Bloomberg's estimate of 14.90 per cent.

CEAT stock has been an underperformer on the bourses in the last two months, and has declined over 17 per cent in this period. Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark index has gained around 3 per cent in the same period.

Among other tyre stocks, MRF which is scheduled to announce Q4 results today, traded 1 per cent lower. JK Tyre shed 4 per cent, and Apollo Tyres was down 1 per cent.