HUL, Asian Paints, Mphasis, PVR to announce Q3 results; HCL Tech shares to go ex-dividend

Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Asian Paints, Hindustan Zinc, Havells India, Mphasis, PVR, L&T Technology Services, Happiest Minds Technologies, ICICI Securities, IndiaMART InterMESH, Can Fin Homes, Au Small Finance Bank and Polycab India are among dozens of companies that will report their quarterly results on Thursday. The board of companies such as Hindustan Zinc, Havells India and Meghmani Finechem will also consider proposal of payment of interim dividend.

The day would see board of 360 One Wam considering bonus and stock split. HCL Technologies shares will turn ex-dividend today.

Among key earnings, ICICI Securities expects Hindustan Unilever to report a 12.3 per cent YoY jump in net profit at Rs 2,519.20 crore for the December quarter. It sees sales for the FMCG giant rising 12.6 per cent, largely led by pricing growth. It sees volume growth of 5 per cent and pricing growth of 7 per cent during the quarter. Gross margin is expected to contract 392 bps YoY, but improve 240 bps sequentially.

"Home care is expected to witness 23 sales growth given the company has taken price hikes in last one year. Further, detergent has continued to see strong volume growth. Beauty & personal care segment is estimated to post 5.3 per cent sales growth as the company has passed on benefits of palm oil price decline in terms of price cuts in soaps in October 2022. Food & refreshment segment is expected to see growth of 2.3 per cent mainly due to price deflation in the tea segment," it said.

In the case of Asian Paints, Kotak Institutional Equities sees profit falling 7 per cent YoY to Rs 944.80 crore from Rs 1,015.70 crore in the year-ago quarter. Revenues are seen rising 0.6 per cent YoY to Rs 8,582.50 crore from Rs 8,527.20 crore. Ebitda margin is seen at 16.8 per cent against 18.1 per cent YoY.

"We expect 3 per cent YoY decline in volumes and 1 per cent drop in value in standalone on a high base. Deceleration in 3-year CAGR trends is due to demand slowdown attributable to inflation and perhaps easing of pent-up demand, lower/negligible share gains. We estimate 7-8 per cent YoY decline in volumes (ex-putty) and moderation in 3-year volume (ex-putty) CAGR to about 8 per cent in 3QFY23 from 12 per cent in Q1 and 10 per cent in Q2. We expect 14 per cent YoY growth in subsidiary revenues," it said.

Meanwhile, shares of IT major HCL Technologies will turn ex-dividend on Thursday. The IT major had announced an interim dividend of Rs 10 per share while announcing its quarterly results last week.  The record date for the dividend is Friday, January 20.

The dividend would be paid to those shareholders, whose names will appear on the register of members of the company or in the records of the depositories, as beneficial owners of the shares, on Friday.  The dividend will be paid to eligible shareholders on February 1. The IT major had announced Rs 10 dividend each in the last two quarters.

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