India's Heritage Foods profit rises more than three-fold on strong summer demand

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Heritage Foods reported a more than three-fold jump in quarterly profit on Tuesday, as scorching summer boosted demand for ice creams and milkshakes.

The dairy producer said its consolidated profit rose 249% to 584.3 million rupees ($6.98 million) in the three months to June 30, marking the sixth consecutive quarter of growth.

Revenue from operations rose 11% to 10.33 billion rupees.

For further results highlights, click here.

KEY CONTEXT

Unprecedented heat during the June quarter lifted demand for ice creams, lassi, buttermilk and flavored milk, benefiting dairy producers such as Heritage Foods.

Also, rising incomes mainly in urban India and preference for healthier options drove demand for branded dairy products.

Earlier this month, peers Dodla Dairy and Hatsun Agro Products had reported 85% and 63% gains in quarterly profits, respectively.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next Estimates (next 12 months) Analysts' sentiment

12 months)

RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue Profit Mean rating* # of Stock to

growth(%) growth(%) analysts* price

target**

Heritage Foods Ltd HEFI.NS 32.00 17.88 12.27 37.99 Strong Buy 3 1.27

Dodla Dairy Ltd DODL.NS 30.91 19.36 15.69 27.28 Strong Buy 4 0.99

Hatsun Agro Product Ltd HAPL.NS 66.48 26.20 13.99 37.71 Hold 2 1.14

Parag Milk Foods Ltd PAMF.NS 13.64 8.47 17.20 NULL Strong Buy 1 0.66

* 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 = 83.6720 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan, Ashna Teresa Britto; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)