Riyadh – Mubasher Al-Rajhi Capital Research said it upgraded its target price for Almarai to SAR60 per share from SAR59 per share, while maintained its neutral rating.

Almarai continues to benefit from significant margin tailwinds, led by lower raw material costs and continued improvement in operational efficiencies, said Al-Rajhi.

Almarai reported gross margin at 43.1% was the highest ever and was 400bps higher than Al-Rajhi’s estimate, despite higher utility prices (electricity and water) and likely increase in forage costs.