(Reuters) -Indian tyre maker MRF reported a fourth-quarter profit above analysts estimates on Wednesday, as stronger replacement demand from retail customers outpaced muted sales to carmakers.
The company, which supplies to truckmakers such as Ashok Leyland, posted an 31% jump in net profit to 4.98 billion rupees ($59 million) for the quarter ended March 31.
That beat analysts’ average estimate of 3.57 billion rupees, as per data compiled by LSEG.
MRF’s revenue from operations climbed 12% to 69.44 billion rupees, roughly in-line with analysts’ estimates of 69.78 billion rupees.
MRF also declared a record dividend of 229 rupees.
KEY CONTEXT
The growth in India’s car sales has moderated to 8% in 2024 and 2% so far in 2025, from 12% in 2022 and 27% in 2023. That has lead to weak demand for new tyres.
However, the demand to replace tyres on older vehicle has remained steady.
MRF’s rival CEAT missed its quarterly profit estimates.
PEER COMPARISON
Estimates (next 12 Analysts’
months) sentiment
RIC PE EV/EBI Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div
TDA growth (%) growth rating* analyst price yield
(%) s target** (%)
MRF 27.27 12.32 7.95 25.51 Hold 4 1.17 0.15
CEAT 19.02 7.95 13.82 — Buy 17 0.97 0.87
JK Tyre 11.56 6.87 6.86 32.16 Buy 5 0.79 1.40
Apollo 16.91 8.04 7.09 35.01 Buy 25 0.98 1.23
Tyres
* The mean of analysts’ ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell
** The ratio of the stock’s last close to analysts’ mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT
JANUARY TO MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE
— All data from LSEG
— $1 = 84.6300 Indian rupees
(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)
