Ask Value Research

Buy Amara Raja Batteries?

I am interested in buying shares of Amara Raja Batteries

I am interested in buying shares of Amara Raja Batteries. What are your views about this stock?
- Sridhar

Amara Raja Batteries is a mid-cap stock. The company caters to the industrial and automotive batteries segment and is India's second-largest battery manufacturer. It gets around 55 per cent of its revenue from industrial batteries catering to sectors such as telecom, power and railways. These segments played a major role in holding up demand in 2008-2009 when demand from the automobile segment had slowed down. The company has a strong presence in the replacement market as well.

The company's debt-to-equity ratio jumped from 0.20x in March 2006 to 0.95x in March 2008), but has now once again fallen to 0.70x.

The company's five-year compounded annual EPS growth rate is 148 per cent. The price to earnings ratio stands at a modest 8.9x. This is lower than its five-year median PE of 10.96x. The PEG ratio of the stock stands at 0.06.

In the near term the company may face some problems due to margin pressures in the telecom sector, one of its key clients. If you have the risk appetite and intend to invest for three-five years, you may accumulate this stock as it falls.

Fundamentals
Debt to equity ratio 0.7x*
RONW (%) 21^
Book value per share (Rs) 62.70**
5 year EPS growth rate (%) 28^
All data is of stand alone as of *March 2009; ^March 2010; **March 31, 2010


This article was originally published on June 30, 2010.

Ask Value Research aks value research information

No question is too small. Share your queries on personal finance, mutual funds, or stocks and let us simplify things for you.


Other Categories

Informed fund ideas, better judgment. Every month. Mutual Fund Insight, every month since October 2002.

Take charge. Know more. Keep more. Mutual Fund Insight helps you do all three — every month