Experts give ACC Q1 thumbs-up; still bullish going forward

ACC has posted consolidated net profit at Rs 227 crore in January-March quarter down 4.2 percent from Rs 237 crore in corresponding quarter last fiscal. During the quarter, total income was also down 2.9 percent at Rs 2991 crore compared to Rs 3080 crore on annual basis.Rashesh Shah, Analyst, ICICI Direct is not surprised with overall numbers but thinks the beat on the margin side was due to some cost saving initiatives by the company that led the expansion.Cement sales volumes were up 9.3 percent at 6.36 metric tonnes in Q4 compared to 5.82 metric tonnes (YoY). The company says sales volume in this quarter was highest since Q1 2014. Premium cement saw an increase of 53 percent in Q1 (YoY). Realisation in the quarter was down 8 percent (YoY).Although the volume growth is bellow industry average of double-digit but from company perspective it has shown growth. According to Prakash Diwan, prakashdiwan.in, the company has managed to clock in good numbers without too much of price hikes, which shows that efficiencies have gone up. Diwan is keen on buying into the cement pack with ACC and UltraTech as his top picks. According to him, the next beat from cement could be from Shree CementsSP Tulsian, sptulsian.com too advices buying into ACC.For more on their rationale for being bullish on ACC, watch video