Shares of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories advanced over 5 per cent on Monday morning after the company said its profit after tax for the September quarter grew 77 per cent. Net profit rose to Rs 504 crore in July-September against Rs 387.6 crore in the same quarter of FY18. Revenue increased to Rs 3,797.80 crore in Q2 FY19 over Rs 3,720.70 crore a year ago. The scrip was 5.64 per cent up at Rs 2,539.50 at around 10.35 am while the BSE Sensex climbed 147.52 points to 33,496.83. Co-chairman and CEO G V Prasad said, “Our continuous focus on execution, operational efficiency and cost optimisation are showing results.

Looking ahead, our priority will be to resolve pending regulatory issues, and continue to work on execution and cost structures that will enable affordable medicines for more patients.” Brokerage firm Edelweiss Securities said, “We believe Dr Reddy’s Labs promising complex generics pipeline, strong earnings revival and compelling valuations at 14.6x FY20E EPS render it a prime re-rating candidate.

We maintain ‘Buy’ with a target price of Rs 3,350.”