Wuliangye Yibin Co. Ltd.'s stock dropped 1.4% on Aug. 7 after the Chinese liquor distiller reported lower profit growth in the first half of 2019 than in the same period the previous year.
For the six months ended June 30, net profit attributable to shareholders reached 9.3 billion Chinese yuan, up 31% year over year from 7.11 billion yuan, the company announced after markets closed Aug. 6. By comparison, the distiller's net profit attributable to shareholders in the first half of 2018 recorded a year over year growth of 43.02%.
Diluted EPS came in at 2.40 yuan, compared with 1.86 yuan in the year-ago period.
The second-largest distiller in China by market value after Kweichow Moutai Co. Ltd., posted revenue of 27.15 billion yuan, up 26.5% year over year from 21.42 billion yuan.
Wuliangye Yibin said in a statement that the growth was attributed to product restructuring and price increase of its key product, Wuliangye baijiu, a Chinese sorghum liquor. A half-liter bottle of Wuliangye retails at 1,089 yuan at Chinese e-commerce site JD.com.
The Shenzen-listed company's stock was down 1.74 yuan, or 1.4%, at 119.54 yuan during afternoon trading hours Aug. 7.
As of August 6, US$1 was equivalent to 7.03 Chinese yuan.
