Livestock Feeds Plc, a manufacturer of animal feeds in Nigeria, saw its earnings per share rise in the first half of 2024 to the highest in at least 13 years, data compiled by BusinessDay shows.
Data obtained from the first six month financial results available on the Nigerian exchange Group shows that its earnings per share rose by 1,064.8 percent to N14.56 from N1.25 reported in the same period of last year.
Earnings per share is a company’s net profit divided by the number of common shares it has outstanding. It also indicates how much money a company makes for each share of its stock, and is a widely used metric for estimating corporate value.
A higher earnings per share indicates greater value because investors will pay more for a company’s shares if they think the company has higher profits relative to its share price.
The shares outstanding stood at 2,9 billion, with a price of N2.25 and a traded volume of 1.26 million as of Friday, August 23.
Livestock Feeds shareholders funds during the period rose to N1.88 billion from N1.7 billion.
The company’s after-tax profit increased to N436 million in the first half of this year from N37 million in the same period of 2023.
Further analysis shows that the manufacturer recorded an increase in revenue from contracts with customers to N15 billion from N9.7 billion driven by sales of livestock feeds to Ikeja (N7.6 billion), Aba (N5.01 billion), Northern parts of Nigeria (N1.8 million) and Onitsha (N976 million).
The producer of animal feeds was established in 1963 by Pfizer as a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical business introduced into Nigeria a few years earlier.
It operates two owned plants in Ikeja and Aba, Nigeria with a joint production capacity of well over 35mt/hr and other operations in Onitsha and Jos.
Livestock Feeds serves Nigeria’s economic sub-sector of livestock, comprising activities such as poultry, Aquaculture, Cattle, Sheep and Goat rearing, Piggery, and Rabbitry.
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A further breakdown of the company’s result disclosed that its operating profit surged by 413.6 percent to N1.5 billion in the first half of 2024 from N292 million.
However, finance income decreased to N736,000 from N751,000 but its finance costs increased to N911 million from N237 million.
Its operating expenses (OPEX) increased by 26 percent to N813 million from N418 million on the back of a 103.9 percent increase in administrative expenses to N675 million during the period.
Its administrative expenses grew on the back of a 79.3 percent boost in management service fees which amounted to N156 million during the period.
Total assets and total liabilities reported by the animal feed manufacturer rose by declined by 16.5 percent and 21.8 percent in the six month period.of 2024.
Total assets fell to N11.1 billion from N13.3 billion while total liabilities fell to N9.3 billion from N11.5 billion in the period under review.
Its total cash and cash equivalents increased by 671.1 percent to N856 million in H1 from N116 million in the same period in 2023.
Movements of its cash and cash equivalents show that the firm generated N7.2 billion from its operations in the first six-month period of 2024 from N2.5 billion, indicating that they increased its ability to cover its short-term obligations during the period.
Its net cash flow from investing activities was negative during the period amounting to N241 million due to N242 million spent on the acquisition of property, plant, and equipment.
Net cash flow from financing activities was also negative, amounting to N6.7 billion during the period due to N7.4 billion spent on repaying loans and borrowings.
