Agro Tech zooms over 16%

Agro Tech Foods is engaged in the marketing of food and food ingredients to consumers and institutional customers. The company is affiliated to ConAgra Foods, Inc of USA, which is one the world's largest food companies. Last year, the company bought land in Howrah in West Bengal to an extent of 5.15 Bigha (around 1.7 acres) costing Rs 3.01 crore. The company bought this land for expanding its manufacturing footprint in the eastern part of the country. No word yet on the progress of that though.

The company posted a good performance for Q3FY17. Net profit was up 33% (YoY) at Rs.8 crore on a 2.5% rise in net sales at Rs.207 crore. This improvement in bottomline was possible by keeping a tight leash on costs – which remained steady at 94% of total income and bringing down interest costs by 58%.

EBITDA was up 16% at Rs.18 crore and margins improved from 7.63% to 8.65%.

The company’s net profit for 9MFY17 was at Rs.22 crore v/s Rs.24 crore for entire FY16; clearly with one more quarter to go, FY17 holds the promise of a very good ending.

The market is very happy with these numbers with the stock price surging over 16% to Rs.521.50. its 52-week high is at Rs.560. The sheer volume on the counter was jaw dropping – up from less than 1000 shares on a 2W average to 62,000 today morning alone.