BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian automaker Force Motors on Friday reported a decline in quarterly profit for the first time in five quarters, hurt by higher costs.

The company, which also makes engines for BMW and Mercedes cars in India, said its consolidated net profit fell 4.3% to 1.4 billion rupees ($16.80 million) in the quarter ended March 31 from a year earlier.

Revenue from operations rose nearly 35% to 20.11 billion rupees.

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KEY CONTEXT

Analysts expected the slowdown in industrial activity ahead of the general elections to moderate the demand for commercial vehicles through the first half of fiscal 2025. Demand is expected to rebound in the second half.

Economic growth, favourable government policies and an anticipated good monsoon are expected to fuel demand in the commercial vehicle sector in FY25, an industry body said earlier this month.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 months) Analysts' sentiment

months)

RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue growth % Profit growth % Mean # of Stock to Div

rating* analysts price yield

target** (%)

Force Motors Ltd NULL NaN NULL NULL Null 0 7.30 0.10

Ashok Leyland 16.46 17.26 8.80 15.50 Buy 30 0.88 3.24

Ltd

Mahindra and 22.73 22.45 11.52 8.78 Buy 31 1.06 0.78

Mahindra Ltd

Tata Motors Ltd 14.98 6.38 8.61 27.02 Buy 28 1.03 0.21

* Mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** Ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

JANUARY-MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 83.3429 Indian rupees

(Reporting by Meenakshi Maidas in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng)