(Reuters) -Indian courier delivery firm Blue Dart Express’s first-quarter profit fell nearly 9% on Tuesday as higher expenses offset a rise in volumes.
The company, which competes with Delhivery and IPO-bound Shadowfax, said its consolidated net profit fell 8.6% to 488.3 million Indian rupees ($5.62 million)in the quarter ended June 30.
Its revenue from operations rose 7.4% to 14.42 billion rupees, while expenses grew 8.3% to 13.86 billion rupees.
KEY CONTEXT
Indian logistics companies have been grappling with higher expenses due to more competition and increased freight costs.
Analysts said Blue Dart’s higher volume growth was likely fueled by the business to consumer (B2C) unit and its Surface business, which delivers items weighing 10 kilograms and above door-to-door.
Blue Dart did not provide a performance breakdown of its businesses.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment
months) months)
RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue Profit Mean No. of Stock to Div
growth (%) growth (%) rating* analyst price yield
s target** (%)
Blue Dart Express 39.45 15.07 10.22 36.83 Buy 5 0.95 0.37
Delhivery 75.89 37.98 14.97 88.26 Buy 22 1.03
VRL Logistics 24.74 10.04 7.20 17.88 Strong 8 0.89 2.41
Buy
Mahindra Logistics 46.85 10.83 14.97 Hold 9 1.05 0.65
* Mean of analysts’ ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell
** Ratio of the stock’s last close to analysts’ mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT
APRIL-JUNE STOCK PERFORMANCE
— All data from LSEG
— $1 = 86.8160 Indian rupees
(Reporting by Manvi Pant and Ananta Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)
