Stocks to Watch: Zomato, Tata Consumer, Lupin, Trent, Nestle

The domestic stock market is expected to have a positive opening on Thursday, February 8th, ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy decision which is due later today. As of 7:35 AM, Gift Nifty futures have shown an upward trend of 47 points, reaching 22,051 levels.

Zomato: Zomato, the online food delivery company, is scheduled to announce its financial results for the quarter ended on December 31, 2023, on February 8. Analysts predict that the food delivery platform will report strong numbers. According to Kotak Institutional Equities, a brokerage firm, the company's revenue is expected to have grown by 61 percent year-on-year (YoY). "We anticipate 3QFY24 revenue growth to be at 61 percent YoY, driven by a 45 percent YoY increase in food delivery revenue (29 percent YoY growth in GMV and 70 bps YoY take rate expansion), an 89 percent YoY increase in Hyperpure revenue, and a 106 percent YoY increase in Blinkit revenue. Our food delivery GMV growth assumption implies 8 percent sequential growth," the firm said. Meanwhile, JM Financial, another brokerage company, predicts a 7 percent sequential growth in food delivery GOV.

Tata Consumer Products: The FMCG company reported a decline of 17.26 percent in its consolidated net profit to Rs 301.51 crore in the last quarter of 2020 due to lower contributions by associate and joint venture firms. However, the company's consolidated profit before exceptional items and tax of the Tata Group FMCG arm increased by 27.12 percent to Rs 513.27 crore in the October-December period, compared to Rs 403.75 crore during the same period a year ago. In the same quarter last year, the company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 364.43 crore. The revenue from operations increased by 9.47 percent to Rs 3,803.92 crore during the quarter under review, compared to Rs 3,474.55 crore in the year-ago period.

Lupin: The pharmaceutical company Lupin has reported a significant increase of 300 percent in its consolidated net profit for Q3FY24, with a total of Rs 613 crore compared to Rs 153.4 crore in the same period of the previous year. This growth was mainly driven by record-high sales across geographies. This is the fourth consecutive quarter in which the company's profits have more than doubled. Total revenue from operations for the quarter rose by 20.2 percent to Rs 5,197.4 crore, compared to Rs 4,322 crore in the same period last year. Additionally, Lupin's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) during the December quarter increased by 95 percent to Rs 1,038 crore, compared to Rs 533 crore in the previous year.

Trent: The Tata group company reported a 140 percent year-on-year (YoY) jump in its net profit for Q3FY24 at Rs 370.6 crore, compared to a net profit of Rs 154.8 crore in the same quarter last year. Revenue in Q3FY24 rose by 50.5 percent to Rs 3,466.6 crore from Rs 2,303.4 crore YoY. The company’s EBITDA for the quarter spiked 95 percent to Rs 629 crore from Rs 323.2 crore, while the EBITDA margin improved by 410 basis points (bps) to 18.1 percent from 14 percent YoY. Trent's share price jumped more than 19 percent after the announcement of Q3 results. The stock spiked as much as 19.26 percent to Rs 3,618.95 apiece on the BSE.

Nestle India: Nestle India on Wednesday reported a net profit of Rs 655.61 crore for the quarter ended December 2023, registering a growth of 4.4 percent compared to Rs 628.06 crore in the same quarter last year. The company’s revenue in Q4CY24 grew 8 percent to Rs 4,600.42 crore from Rs 4256.79 crore, year-on-year (YoY). The company said that strong growth momentum in e-commerce and out-of-home channels drove an 8.9 percent increase in domestic sales, which was supported by price and mix growth. However, on a sequential basis, net profit slumped 27.8 percent from Rs 908.08 crore in Q3CY24, and the FMCG major's revenue from operations was down 8.7 percent from Rs 5036.82 crore.

Power Grid Corporation: The state-owned company on Wednesday reported a 10.5 percent year-on-year (YoY) increase in net profit at Rs 4,028.3 crore for Q3FY24, compared to a net profit of Rs 3,645.3 crore it had earned in the corresponding quarter last year, the company said in a regulatory filing. The company's revenue from operations increased 2.6 percent to Rs 11,549.8 crore as against Rs 11,261.8 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal. At the operating level, EBITDA grows 3.2 percent to Rs 10,212.9 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal over Rs 9,893.5 crore in the corresponding period in the previous fiscal. The company's board of directors has approved the payment of the second interim dividend of Rs 4.50 per equity share of Rs 10 each for FY24, to be paid on March 5, 2024.

Larsen & Toubro: The EPC company's power transmission and distribution business bagged large orders in the Indian and Middle East markets on Wednesday, it said in a filing to BSE. The business has secured an order to set up a 75 MW floating solar photovoltaic plant on a dam as a part of the ultra mega renewable energy power park being developed on Damodar Valley corporation reservoirs in Jharkhand and West Bengal. In Saudi Arabia, the company has bagged an order for turnkey construction of a substation. “The business has also won substation and voltage conversion orders from hydrocarbon companies in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In an ongoing 220 KV Power Supply Project in the UAE, an additional order has been secured".

Mankind Pharma: The promoters of Mankind Pharma have announced their plan to reduce their shareholding between February 8 and February 15 in order to comply with the minimum public shareholding requirements. The promoter group members, including Sheetal Arora, Arjun Juneja and Puja Juneja, will aim to decrease their stake from the current 76.5 percent to 74.88 percent, as per an exchange filing.

Vodafone Idea: The telecom company has urged the government to establish a subsidy program that would incentivize feature phone users to transition to smartphones through their respective operators. They have also requested that the government ignore requests to shut down 2G networks that serve low-income consumers. Vodafone Idea has suggested that the subsidy be financed through the Universal Services Obligation Fund or the Digital Bharat Nidhi. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is currently holding consultations on digital transformation through the 5G ecosystem. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel MD Gopal Vittal has stated that 2G networks would eventually phase out over the next few years.