ITC share price dips ahead of trading ex-date for ₹6.50 per share interim dividend | Stock Market News

FMCG conglomerate ITC share price plunged over 1 per cent on Tuesday’s trading session as the record date – February 12- for dividend approaches. At 12:10 pm, the ITC stock was trading at ₹422.75 per share on February 11.

After its demerger from ITC Hotels, the company has declared its first interim dividend of ₹6.50 per share for FY2025, following the announcement of its Q3 results.

“Declared Interim Dividend of ₹6.50 per Ordinary Share of Re 1 each for the financial year ending on 31st March, 2025,” the company said in an exchange filing on February 6.

The company further informed, “Fixed Wednesday, 12th February, 2025 as the Record Date for the purpose of determining entitlement of the Members for such Interim Dividend. Dividend will be paid between Thursday, 6th March, 2025 and Saturday, 8th March, 2025 to those Members of the Company entitled thereto.”

Investors must own ITC shares by the record date of February 12, 2025, to be eligible for the dividend.

The dividend will be distributed between March 6 and March 8, 2025, with the amount being directly deposited into the bank accounts of eligible shareholders associated with their Demat accounts.

Before the demerger, the conglomerate declared two dividends in 2024— ₹7.50 in June and ₹6.25 in February. In comparison, the company distributed ₹15.50 per share in 2023 and ₹11.50 per share in 2022.

ITC Q3 FY25 results highlights

In Q3 FY2025, ITC recorded a 7.27 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit, which stood at ₹5,013.16 crore for the December quarter, compared to ₹5,406.52 crore in the same period last year.

The decline was primarily due to subdued demand and a significant increase in input costs.

However, the company’s revenue from operations saw a 9.05 per cent rise, reaching ₹20,349.96 crore in the December quarter, up from ₹18,660.37 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Brokerage firm Centrum Broking has retained its ‘buy’ rating with a target price of ₹515. “We believe with stable taxation, the legal industry has been able to recoup volumes from illegal cigarettes, while expect price hikes in next 3-6 months by looking higher rm pressure. We expect, Cigarette segment would continue to grow mid to high single digit with stable margin whereas FMCG is expected to grow high single digit with ~11.5-12.5% EBITDA margin. We believe long term growth strategy intact for ITC coupled with capital efficiency and visible rural recovery to lift operating performance. We tweaked our earnings for FY25E/FY26E 2.9%/7.5% and retain BUY, with a revised DCF-based TP of Rs515 (implying 28.7x FY27E EPS). Risk: higher inflation and local competition,” the brokerage firm said.

In the past five days, the ITC stock has fallen by approximately 6 per cent, while over the last month, it has declined by 3 per cent. Over six months, it has dropped nearly 13 per cent, but on a yearly scale, ITC has given a positive return of over 4 per cent.