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Patanjali Foods (erstwhile Ruchi Soya) shares surged to a 52-week high on Friday, rising for a second straight session, after Antique initiated coverage on the FMCG company's stock with a 'buy' rating. The brokerage has set a target price of Rs 1,725 for the Patanjali Foods stock, implying a 43 percent upside from Thursday's closing price.

Patanjali Foods shares closed higher by Rs 54.9 or 4.6 percent at Rs 1,261.3 apiece on BSE, having locked in the upper circuit to touch a 52-week high of Rs 1,266.8 during the session.

The stock traded with high volumes. A total of 2.6 lakh Patanjali Foods shares changed hands on BSE through the day, as against a daily average of 33,000 over the past two weeks, according to exchange data.

According to Antique, the company is Patanjali Foods is poised to deliver a robust performance from the year ended March 2022 to the year ending March 2024.

The brokerage estimates revenue growth of 22 percent for Patanjali Foods and a 49 percent increase in earnings.

In June, Ruchi Soya Industries' name was changed to Patanjali Foods, after the company acquired parent Patanjali Ayurved's food business for Rs 690 crore.

In 2019, Patanjali Ayurved acquired Ruchi Soya for Rs 4,350 crore through an insolvency process.

Antique believes that the companies' march to becoming a diversified FMCG player will only accelerate after the acquisition of the food business.

Patanjali Foods shares have rewarded investors with a return of more than nine percent in the past one year, a period in which the Nifty50 benchmark has risen 2.7 percent.

Last month, Patanjali Foods reported a 39 percent jump in net profit to Rs 241.3 crore for the April-June period compared with the corresponding period a year ago. Its revenue jumped 36.9 percent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 7,211 crore, according to a regulatory filing.

The company's margin, however, came down by 90 basis points to 5.4 percent compared with the year-ago period.

Indian equity benchmarks BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 finished a volatile session flat on Friday, as losses in oil & gas and IT stocks offset gains in financial and FMCG shares.

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