Cipla Shares Jump 4% As Brokerages Turn Bullish After Q4 Results

Shares of Cipla Ltd fell nearly 4 percent on Monday reacting to the company's 1 percent decline in revenue for the March-ended quarter.

On 15 May, the pharma company reported a 33 percent decline in consolidated net profit for the period at Rs 238.49 crore compared with Rs 357.68 crore in the same quarter last year.

Its revenue from operations for the quarter fell to Rs 4,376.19 crore from Rs 4,403.98 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Cipla also said that its board will raise up to Rs 3,000 crore by issue of equity shares, depository receipt or bonds subject to regulatory approvals.

Brokerages turned bullish on the stock, as the company said that its India business delivered a third consecutive quarter of market-beating double-digit growth and that the full-year growth was at 9 percent.

Cipla's South Africa private business delivered 11 percent growth on a year-on-year basis and is the third-largest player overall in the country where it has a market share of 6.9 percent and an over-the-counter (OTC) market share of 7.1 percent.

Brokerage CLSA maintained 'buy' call on the stock with a target at Rs 720 per share. Strong March-quarter earnings and respiratory pipeline progress will sustain valuations, it said. It further said that Cipla's respiratory pipeline for the US is making strong progress. Also, it sees the company's earnings profile improve over the next few years.

Further, Cipla is planning on working on multiple drugs to treat COVID-19, including its newly licensed Remdesivir. It was among the three Indian companies that signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement with US-based Gilead Sciences last week to make and distribute the latter's experimental antiviral drug Remdesivir in 127 countries including India.