What Brokerages Made Of Reliance Industries’ Q3 Earnings Performance

Most analysts retained their stance on Reliance Industries Ltd. on the back of a robust retail business even as its third-quarter operating profit fell the most in more than four years.

The oil-to-telecom conglomerate’s petrochemical and telecom business missed analyst estimates whereas the refining segment’s numbers met expectations. The retail business, however, outperformed yet again.

Here’s what brokerages have to say on RIL’s third-quarter results:

UBS

• Maintain ‘Buy’ with Target Price of Rs 1,750.
• Robust consumer business performance led to another strong quarter.
• Jio adopted lower corporate tax rates, driving net profit higher.
• Strong retail revenue and Ebitda performance were driven by rapid store expansion, operating leverage and efficiency.

Prabhudas Lilladher

• Maintain Buy; cut target price to Rs 1,705 from Rs 1,793.
• Weak refining and petrochemicals profitability drag performance.
• Weak spreads hit profits; E&P performance remain muted.
• Jio and retail profitability continues to remain strong.

Kotak Securities

• Surprisingly weak revenue print; IUC tariff drives a sharp jump in churn.
• Ebitda below expectations despite the IUC delta and further decline in staff costs.
• Net debt rises further, traffic growth weak; fairly weak underlying print.

B&K Securities

• Maintain ‘Buy’ with target price of Rs 1,845.
• Weak petrochemicals and telecom performance.
• New consumer businesses deliver robust growth.
• Positive FCF generation after 20 quarters should cheer the markets.

Axis Capital

• Maintain ‘Buy’; Hike target price to Rs 1,900 from Rs 1,750
• Consumer businesses continue to sustain momentum with positive surprise on revenue.
• Cyclical business was a narrow miss—refining was ahead and petchem was a miss.
• TP hiked as it has been rolled over to FY22.

IIFL Securities

• Extent of outperformance may have narrowed in the third quarter.
• Jio turned IUC positive earlier than expected.
• Enterprise estimate hiked to $75 billion from $67 billion considering quicker and sharper-than-expected industry recovery.

HDFC Securities

• Maintain ‘Neutral’ with target price of Rs 1,562
• Weak margins across petchem products and higher operating expenses adversely impacted.
• Refining and petchem segments face demand slack, given the impending capacity additions.
• Jio Ebitda margin improved owing to reduction in interconnect charges.

Motilal Oswal

• Maintain ‘Buy’ with target price of Rs 1,820.
• Consumer businesses fuel growth.
• In-line refining throughput and GRM.
• Petchem volumes healthy, margins continue suffering.

Edelweiss

• IUC tariff drives away subscribers, improves profitability.
• Tariff hike to boost profitability further.
• Outcome of AGR liabilities to determine sector dynamics.

Centrum

• Maintain ‘Buy’ with target price of Rs 1,581.
• Downstream woes offset by Jio/Retail momentum.
• Downstream businesses—refining resilient, petchem remains weak.
• Strength in earnings will sustain over next two-three years, complemented by steady reduction in net debt and improving prospects across business segments.

Edelweiss

• Maintain ‘Buy’ with target price of Rs 1,844.
• Refining outperformance offsets weak petchem.
• Retail scales new heights; free cash flow turns positive.