Maruti reports unexpected decline in Q4 profit, revenue holds up street estimates; stock down over 1%

India’s largest car manufacturing company Maruti Suzuki on Tuesday reported quarter four results. The company’s profit fell by around 10 per cent in the last quarter of the financial year 2020-2021 to Rs 1166 crore as against Rs 1291 crore in the same quarter in the previous financial year. 

The company reported exponential growth in terms of revenue by 32 per cent to Rs 24024 crore as compared to the corresponding quarter in the previous year. Similarly, the company has also shown a rise in EBITDA by over 28 per cent to 1991 crore in Q4FY21 versus Rs 1546 crore in Q4FY20. The automaker reported a margin of 8.3 per cent in the March-ended quarter of FY21.  

The automaker failed to match up the street estimates in terms of profit as many brokerage firms were expecting a double-digit growth. However, it did uplift the revenue expectations of the street - the experts had predicted the vehicle manufacturing company would report over 30 per cent top-line. 

The unexpected decline in the bottom line was the result of a steep fall in other income to Rs 89.8 crore from Rs 880 crore a year ago. The company’s net sales, for the financial year, fell by over seven per cent to Rs 66,562 crore.  

The board of directors has also considered and recommended a final dividend of Rs 45 per share with a nominal value of Rs 5 per share). The final dividend is subject to the approval of shareholders. 

There was a sharp decline and rise of the shares of Maruti amid the results announcement and since then the stock has been declining. The shares are down over one per cent today, trading around day’s low at Rs 6555 per equity share intraday. 

Maruti Suzuki became the only company in the auto space to increase its vehicle price this year. First in January, and twice in April 2021, amid rising input costs, the company had reported.