Should you buy, hold or sell Shree Cement shares after high input costs eat into firm's margin?

Shree Cement share price: The stock of the cement maker dropped on Thursday, a day after the company reported a set of quarterly earnings that fell short of analysts' expectations, as input costs ate into its margin. Shree Cement shares declined by Rs 521.8 or 2.2 per cent to Rs 23,720 at the weakest level of the day. 

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Jefferies raised their target prices for the company's stock by Rs 100-1,308. CLSA downgraded Shree to 'sell' from 'reduce' and brought down its target by Rs 1,750 to Rs 22,250. 

Here's what brokerages recommend on Shree Cement after the cement manufacturer's Q3 results:

Shree Cements Q3 results

During market hours on Wednesday, the cement maker reported a 43.7 per cent fall in net profit to Rs 276.8 crore for the quarter ended December 2022 compared with the corresponding period a year ago. Its revenue increased 14.6 per cent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 4,068.8 crore. 

Both topline and bottomline fell short of analysts' estimates. 

According to Zee Business research, Shree Cement's quarterly net profit was estimated at Rs 332.5 crore and revenue at Rs 4,148 crore.

The company's margin — a key measure of profitability — shrank to 17.4 per cent from 23.3 per cent a year ago, owing to high input costs.

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