Shares of Adani Ports were in focus today after brokerage Morgan Stanley adopted overweight stance on the stock post business update for December. It gave a target price of Rs 1,030 to the Adani Group stock on January 5. That’s an upside of 27% to the closing price of Rs 810.15 on January 4.
On January 4, Adani Ports said it logged a year-on-year growth of 8 percent in container volumes as it handled 25.1 million metric tonnes (MMT) cargo in December 2022. The company clocked 253 MMT of cargo volumes for the nine month period of April-December 2022, 8 percent higher than the corresponding period a year ago.
Buoyed by the announcement, Morgan Stanley said APSEZ handled 25.1mmt, 75.6mmt & 253mmt of total cargo for December 2022,F3Q23 & F9M23, respectively, which implies growth of 1%,2% & 8% YoY, respectively. Cargo growth is down 13% QoQ for APSEZ in F3Q23.
As per APSEZ, container volume growth was 8% in December 2022. There is a downside risk to company’s guidance of 350-360 mmt for FY2023. To reach lower end of guidance, implied ask rate for F4Q is cargo growth of 24% YoY, which appears challenging, the brokerage added.
The Adani Group firm reported a 68.5 percent rise in net profit at Rs 1,677.48 crore in the September 2022 quarter while the revenue from operations increased 32.8 percent to Rs 5,210.80 crore.
Cargo volume was up 15 percent YoY to 86.6 MMT in July-September.
Revenue from the company’s Port and SEZ activities rose to Rs 4,609.29 crore in the September quarter from Rs 3,530.68 crore last year.
The relative strength index (RSI) of the large cap stock stands at 41.14, signaling it’s neither oversold nor undersold. The Adani Ports stock has a one-year beta of 1.39, indicating high volatility during the period.
In the current trading session, the Adani Ports stock fell 0.87 per cent to Rs 812.80 in afternoon trade. The large cap stock opened marginally lower at Rs 819 against the previous close of Rs 819.95 on BSE. Currently, the stock trades higher than the 200-day moving averages but lower than 5-day, 20-day, 50 day and 100-day moving averages. Adani Ports shares have gained 9.71 per cent in one year but lost 0.79 per cent since the beginning of this year.
Market cap of the firm stood at Rs 1.75 lakh crore on BSE. Total 0.49 lakh shares of the firm changed hands amounting to a turnover of Rs 4.04 crore on BSE. The stock hit a 52 week high of Rs 987.90 on September 20, 2022 and a 52 week low of Rs 652.05 on February 24, 2022.
Adani Ports has a pan-India presence in 10 locations (nine are operational) with its flagship being Mundra Port, India’s largest commercial port, on the Gulf of Kutch.