Fauji Cement Company Limited (FCCL) increased its net profit by more than a half during January-March quarter of 2016, according to a notification sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday.
The company reported a net profit of Rs1.56 billion or Rs1.13 per share for the quarter ended March 31, 2016, up 59% compared to Rs981 million it earned in the same quarter of the previous year.
The market showed mixed response to the company’s financial performance during the period under review. According Topline Securities, the result was ‘in line with street consensus’ while AKD research said it exceeded their expectations – the AKD research was expecting an EPS of Rs1.05 per share.
Following the result announcement, the cement manufacturer’s share price depreciated by Re0.57 or 1.12% compared to Rs44.17 per share of the previous day and closed at Rs43.60 per share at the end of market on Monday with 3.6 million shares changing hands.
Topline attributed the growth in earnings to higher local dispatches. “Local sales remained robust owing to higher demand from private sector (D.H.A, Bahria, Emaar, Fazaia housing schemes etc) as evident from 39% year-over-year credit growth in construction sector during Feb 2016,” it said.
Fauji cement reported revenues of Rs5.24 billion during the first quarter of 2016, an increase of 18% compared to Rs4.42 billion it earned in sales during the same quarter of 2015.
Better than expected gross margin also helped improve the company’s bottom line, AKD research noted – the company’s gross profit margin improved by more than 10 percentage points to 47.7% during the quarter compared to 36.7% of the same quarter of 2015.