After being caught unawares by the SUV craze, Maruti overtook Mahindra to become India's largest SUV maker in the first half of FY24. It’s now looking to replicate its small-car supremacy in this space, but its hatchback sales are struggling.
Maruti Suzuki India's shares rose 4% to hit a new 52-week high, joining the club of stocks with a market capitalization of Rs 4 lakh crore, such as Reliance Industries and Larsen & Toubro.
India's largest passenger carmaker on Wednesday reported over 33% jump in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended December 2023 at Rs 3,206.8 crore vs Rs 2,406.1 crore reported in the year-ago period. Revenue for the quarter came in at Rs 33,512.8 crore vs Rs 29,251.1 crore a year ago, registering a 14.5% YoY growth.
After an over 23 percent rise in the stock in 2023 YTD, domestic brokerage house Centrum Broking expects another over 46 percent increase in auto major Maruti Suzuki in the next 12 months.
“Today almost 25% of our products are CNG and about 15% of the industry now is CNG as compared with about 17.5% for diesel. Yes, EV is also separate, currently at around 2.4% of the industry. Yes, there would be support for EV and in the intermediate period before EVs become mainstream, you would find support continuing for hybrid and CNG as well.”
“The total number of securities proposed to be issued to SMC as consideration for the acquisition of 100% stake of SMC in SMG, shall be decided in a subsequent Board Meeting, basis relevant valuation reports subject to and in compliance with the applicable regulatory and statutory framework”, Maruti Suzuki said in a filing to the bourses.
Automaker Maruti Suzuki's net profit for the quarter ended June 2023 surged more than 2-fold YoY to Rs 2,485 crore, and was slightly higher than the ET Now poll estimate of Rs 2,444 crore. The revenue from operations rose 22% on year to Rs 32,327 crore and was higher than the estimated Rs 31,778 crore.
While Maruti Suzuki seems to be on the right track, investors will have to wait and observe how it adapts to a highly competitive environment for EVs and SUVs, where technology is a huge factor.