This is the biggest single-day gain for the stock since April 2021, when it had also gained 10% in a single session.
Brokerages such as JPMorgan and Nuvama have upgraded the stock after its quarterly results.
While JPMorgan has upgraded the stock to “overweight” from “neutral” and raised its price target to ₹1,750 from ₹1,600 earlier, Nuvama has also upgraded it to “buy” from its earlier rating of “hold”, and raised its price target to ₹1,675 from ₹1,572 earlier.
Citi has also maintained its “buy” rating on Astral with a price target if ₹1,900. The brokerage said that Astral has seen double digit volume growth in the first four to five months of the current financial year.
Astral’s CPVC backward integration is on track for the fourth quarter of financial year 2027, which will support financial year 2028 margin expansion and market share gains.
CLSA though has a “hold” rating on Astral with a price target of ₹1,490, saying that the guidance is maintained and viewed as largely achievable.
For the June quarter, Astral’s 16% revenue growth from last year, was marginally below street expectations of 17%.
Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) growth of 25% and margins of 14.6%, were also in-line with expectations.
Plumbing segment revenue for Astral saw growth of 10% from last year, while the paints and adhesives business saw growth of 30% year-on-year.
Astral’s first phase of the 40,000 MT CPVC Resin plant is expected to be ready by December and trial runs will take place in the fourth quarter of this year. Full benefits from this will reflect in financial year 2028.
However, index service provider MSCI announced that Astral will be excluded from the MSCI India Standard Index and move to the Smallcap index. This will result in potential outflows worth $138 million, according to Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research. The rebalancing exercise takes place on August 31.
31 analysts have coverage on Astral, of which 24 have a “buy” rating, three say “hold” and four have a “sell” rating on the stock.
Shares of Astral are trading 7.7% higher on Thursday at ₹1,575.8. With this move, the stock has also turned positive on a year-to-date basis.
