Pidilite Industries shares fall 6% on Q4 earnings, dividend announcement

Shares of Pidilite Industries slipped 6% in early deals on Wednesday after the fevicol maker announced its Q4 earnings. The adhesive manufacturer reported a 6.4% rise in net profit to Rs 304.3 crore for the fourth quarter of the financial year 2024 impacted by an exceptional loss of Rs 71.7 crore. Pidilite Industries stock slipped 5.88% to Rs 2777.05 against the previous close of Rs 2950.65 on BSE. Total 0.41 lakh shares of the firm changed hands amounting to a turnover of Rs 11.65 crore on BSE. Market cap of the firm slipped to Rs 1.42 lakh crore on BSE. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 2293.10 on October 26, 2023 and a 52 week high of Rs 3116 on May 2, 2024.  

In terms of technicals, the relative strength index (RSI) of the stock stands at 51.2, signaling it's trading neither in the overbought or oversold zone. Pidilite shares have a beta of 0.5, indicating very low volatility in a year. The stock is trading lower than the 5 day, 10 day, 20 day, 30 day, 50 day but higher than the 100 day, 150 day and 200 day moving averages. The stock has gained 4 percent in 2024 and gained 14.37% in a year.   

Revenue from operations climbed 7.9 percent to Rs 2,901.9 crore in the March quarter. 

Brokerage Nuvama has maintained its buy call on the stock post Q4 earnings. 

"Pidilite’s Q4FY24 Revenue (up 7.9% YoY) came ahead of our estimates; while EBITDA (up 25.6% YoY) - came in line with our estimates. Overall volume growth stood at 15.2% YoY, with C&B and B2B volumes growing 12.7%/25.2% YoY respectively. Rural and urban both registered growth with rural outpacing urban. Gross margins expanded by 664bp YoY/55bp QoQ to stand at 53.4% (now at a 12 quarter high). EBITDA margins grew 281bp YoY to 19.9%. There was an exceptional item of Rs 716.7 mn relating to loss of sale of shares in subsidiary (Brazil) - thus now fully exited the businesses in America."

The board appointed Ravishankar Chandrasekaran, (CBO – Large User Business) as a Senior Management Personnel of the company with effect from May 7, 2024.

The board recommended a dividend of Rs 16 per equity share of Rs 1 each for the financial year ended March 31, 2024. The dividend is subject to the approval of the shareholders at the 55th Annual General Meeting. It will be paid to the shareholders within a period of 30 days from the date of the 55th Annual General Meeting.