Bajaj Auto announces share buyback; stock surges 5.6%, hits 52-week high

Shares of two-wheeler major Bajaj Auto Ltd surged over 5% today after the company announced a share buyback on January 8, 2023.

"The board at its meeting on Monday, 08 January 2024, will consider a proposal to buyback of fully paid-up equity shares of the company and other matters necessary," Bajaj Auto says via a stock exchange filing.

The company says the trading window for dealing in securities or equity shares of the company will remain closed for all designated persons and their relatives from January 1, 2024, till the outcome of the declaration of financial results for Q3 FY2023-24 i.e. till 26 January 2024.

Reacting to the development, shares of Bajaj Auto surged to an intra-day high of 5.6% to ₹7,059.75 on the BSE, before settling 4.91% up at ₹6,898.4 by the closing of trading hours. The share also touched a 52-week high today, which is up 50.1% from the 52-week low of ₹3,522 touched on January 12, 2023. With this, Bajaj Auto's m-cap also surged to ₹1.97 lakh crore.

In the past year, Bajaj Auto's share price has almost doubled (up 96.12%), while the scrip recorded a 50.65% rise in the past six months. On a one-month and past-week basis, the auto major share has surged 12.36% and 4.31%, respectively.

In the month of December 2023, Bajaj Auto sold 3,26,806 vehicles, a YoY increase of 16% from 2,81,514 in December 2022. The domestic sales stood at 1,90,919, while exports accounted for 1,35,887 units, both surging by 28% and 2%, respectively. The company saw the highest increase in commercial vehicle sales at 41% YoY, followed by domestic two-wheeler sales at 26%.

In the April-December 2023 period, the company's overall sales increased 7% to 32.8 lakh against 30.6 lakh in the same period a year ago. Domestic commercial vehicles accounted for the highest increase in sales at 76% YoY, while domestic two-wheeler sales surged 22% during April-December 2023.

The company had recorded 20% increase in year-on-year (YoY) profit to ₹1,836 crore in the July to September quarter against ₹1,530 crore in the same period last year. The revenue from operations stood at ₹10,777 crore, up 6%, as against ₹10,203 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

In the September quarter, the EBITDA (earnings before income, tax, depreciation and amortisation) stood at ₹2,133 crore, up 21% year-on-year (YoY) driven by better realisation and a richer product mix, while the EBITDA margin expanded by 260 basis points (bps) to 19.8% against 17.2% in the same period last year.

Bajaj Auto will release its Q3 FY24 (October-December) quarter results on Jan 26, 2024.

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