Larsen & Toubro nears 52-week high on good Q1 results

The stock was up 4% to Rs 1,206, trading close to its 52-week high of Rs 1,223 touched on May 30

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) gained 4% to Rs 1,206 on BSE in early morning trade after the engineering giant reported a 46% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 893 crore for the quarter ended June 2017 (Q1FY18). Consolidated revenues rose 10% to Rs 23,990 crore on Y-o-Y basis.

The stock is trading close to its 52-week high of Rs 1,223, touched on May 30, 2017 in the intra-day trade. It hit a record high of Rs 1,262 on March 4, 2015.

Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin declined to 8.1% from 9.2%, primarily due to job mix and cost overruns on extended stay in a few projects, L&T said in a press release.

Order inflow, however, fell 11% to Rs 26,352 crore over the previous year quarter.

“Order inflow reflects muted capex environment. The trend of higher public sector outlay vis-a-vis reduced private sector capex continues,” it added.

The order pipeline across segments remains strong though. The orders backlog at Rs 262,900 crore logged 2% growth during the quarter.

“Despite weaker order intake during the quarter, the company has maintained its order intake guidance of 12-14% growth for FY18. Also, it is encouraging to note improvement in the core infrastructure segment (up 19%), after almost 2.5 years of subdued performance. With multiple engines to fire, we see L&T as a credible play on investment recovery and maintain BUY with SoTP based target price of Rs 1,331,” analysts at Antique Stock Broking in Q1FY18 results review.

“We forecast 12% CAGR in revenues till FY19. We anticipate a strong margin recovery through power, heavy engineering, electrical and automation and IDPL. Thereby, we believe EBITDA should grow by 20% CAGR over the next two fiscals,” according analysts at IDBI Capital.