ITC Q4 Results: Net profits rose 23%, Rs 9.5 per share dividend declared

Kolkata based diversified consumer goods company ITC recently revealed its results for the Jan - Mar ‘23 period. Declining inflation levels and revival in its key rural markets led to both revenue and profit growth for the company.

Meanwhile, the ITC share price has displayed a stellar performance in recent times. In 2023 so far, the ITC share price has gained almost 26% while over the past year it is up by close to 52%.

Now, will its recent results lead to more share price growth for ITC? What were the ITC revenues in the March quarter? Did the ITC margins improve from the previous year? How much net profits did ITC clock? What was the dividend declared by ITC? Let’s try and decode!

Decoding ITC Q4 earnings

ITC revenues:

• ITC reported gross revenues of Rs 18799.18 crores for the Jan - Mar ‘23 period. It marked a growth of 7% from the previous year.
   
• Although the company has been making moves in recent years to shift from its dependency on cigarettes, the segment still cornered a major chunk of the revenue mix for it. The cigarettes division reported sales of Rs 8082.26 crores in the Jan - Mar ‘23 period, up 13% from the prior year. Rising volumes and a stable tax regime helped matters for the division.
   
• The key agricultural business clocked revenues of Rs 3,607.30 crores for the March quarter. This denotes a decline of 17.6% from the previous year. Although the specter of inflation is cooling down, it had remained at elevated levels for most parts of the March quarter which hit the rural populace hard, which in turn hurt the revenues from the agriculture business.
   
• The stationery segment reported revenues of Rs 2221.01 crores, up a mere 2% from the previous year. However, the hotels segment clocked revenues of Rs 808.72 crores almost double from the previous year. This can be attributed to the rise in travel demand post the pandemic.

ITC operating margins: ITC operating margins for the March quarter stood at 36.1%. This denotes an improvement from the previous year’s figure of 32.2%.

Moreover, the operating profit also increased by 18.9% from the previous year to Rs 6,209 crores.

ITC Dividend: ITC declared a dividend of Rs 9.5 per share. The company declared a special dividend of Rs 2.75 per share and a final dividend of Rs 6.75 per share.

ITC net profits: ITC reported net profits of Rs 5,225.02 crores for the Jan - Mar ‘23 period. This denotes a growth of 22.7% from the prior year.

ITC Q4 earnings: Analyst target price

Bank of America: The renowned brokerage has a “Buy” rating on the stock with a price target of Rs 440.

Nuvama: The leading brokerage has a “Buy” rating on the stock with a price target of Rs 500. The firm remains of the opinion that the company's revenue segments are expected to remain strong which will aid the ITC share price growth.

Kotak Institutional Equities: The top domestic brokerage has a “Buy” rating on the stock with a price target of Rs 450.

Phillip Capital: The renowned brokerage has a “Buy” rating on the stock with a price target of Rs 475.

Motilal Oswal: The top domestic brokerage has a “Buy” rating on the stock with a price target of Rs 495. The firm believes that decreasing inflation and a stable tax regime will lead to a rise in ITC share price in the future.

This is not investment advice. Investments in the securities market are subject to market risk, read all the related documents carefully before investing. Past performance is not indicative of future returns.