Riding on record sales, the country?s largest two-wheeler maker Hero Honda on Monday reported a 48.9% jump in its net profit at Rs 598.8 crore for the quarter ending March 31. During the period the company?s revenue increased by 20.2% to Rs 4,122.32 crore compared to the corresponding quarter of last year.

The company declared a final dividend of 1,500% equalling Rs 30 per share on each share of Rs 2.

However, going ahead the company is likely to face bumps in the form of higher interest rates, inflation and rising commodity prices like steel, aluminium and tyres, which could put pressure on margins. ?These factors will play a crucial role in the industry growth and profitability in the days to come,? Hero Honda managing director and chief executive Pawan Munjal said in a statement.

Acknowledging that maintaining the current levels of profit margins in the coming quarters would be a big challenge, CFO Ravi Sud, however, ruled out any price raises in the near future, saying it had managed rising commodity costs through favourable contract negotiations with raw material suppliers.

Hero Honda aims to sell 5 million two-wheelers in the current fiscal, which is up 8.7% from the 4.6 million it sold last year. However, analysts peg this as a conservative target and expect it to exceed that with double-digit growth.

The company plans a capital expenditure of Rs 300 crore this fiscal, including Rs 130 crore to raise capacity to 5.7 million from the current 5.4 million, by August or September.

For the full year (April-March, 2010) Hero Honda?s net profit was up 74.1% at Rs 2,231.83 crore, while total revenue at Rs 15,860.51 crore was 28.1%.

This is for the ninth successive year that the world?s largest two-wheeler maker recorded the highest ever-revenue, operating income and earnings per share.

The Ebidta margin for the quarter grew to 17.2%. For the year the company recorded an Ebidta margin of 17.4% from 14.1% in the previous fiscal.

During the January-March period, Hero Honda sold 11,86,536 units, up 18.9% from the same period in the previous fiscal. On an annual basis, the company’s total sales increased by 23.6% to 46,00,130 units. With this the company crossed the mark of cumulative sale of over 30 million units.

Though the company announced its results after the market closing hours, its shares fell 1.18% to Rs 1,896.90 on a day when the main index fell 1.08%. Its shares had risen 13.2% in the March quarter, compared to a 0.4% rise in the main index and 3.2% rise in the sector index.