NEW DELHI: Shares of cement maker ACC jumped over 5 per cent in morning trade on Friday, a day after it reported a 38.61 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 455.68 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2019 helped by the improvement in operating performance and sales. The company, which follows January-December financial year, had posted a profit of Rs 328.74 crore in April-June quarter a year ago, ACC said in a BSE filing. Total revenue from the operation was up 7.83 per cent to Rs 4,149.82 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 3,848.25 crore in the year-ago period. Foreign brokerage Goldman Sachs maintained buy recommendation on the stock after the quarterly numbers.

Setting a target price at Rs 1,860 per share, Goldman Sachs said the 1 per cent YoY decline in volume was better than expected and the quarter was a 'price driven beat'.

It said ACC has the highest leverages to prices.

CLSA has a buy recommendation on ACC with a target price of Rs 2,050.

The global brokerage raised the earnings per share (EPS) forecasts on ACC by 3-4 per cent. Citi, too, retained buy recommendation on ACC with a target price at Rs 1,750, terming the softness in pricing and volume as temporary.

HDFC Securities has a buy call on ACC with a target price of Rs 1,930.

"We estimate ACC to deliver 13/17 per cent Ebitda/PAT CAGR during CY18-20E.

Given ACC’s healthy cash flow and RoE, and its firming up major expansion plans (20 per cent capacity increase by end CY21E/early CY21E), current valuation (of 9.3 times/8.8 times its CY20/21E Ebitda, EV/T of $120) is inexpensive.

We reiterate buy with a target price of Rs 1,930 (ascribing 11 times to its Jun-21E Ebitda and 0.5 times to its CY20E CWIP)," said the brokerage.

The scrip pared most of its gains and traded 1.71 per cent up at Rs 1,594.05 on BSE around 10:20 am.