Stock of this telecom equipment company has zoomed over 200% in 5 months

Shares of Avantel surged 20 per cent to hit a new high of Rs 306 on the BSE in Tuesday’s intra-day trade, after the board recommended issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 2:1 i.e., 2 equity shares for every 1 equity share held by the equity shareholder of the company as on a record date to be fixed thereon.

The telecom equipment and accessories company has also reported strong earnings for September quarter (Q2FY24) with consolidated net profit more-than-doubled to Rs 16.07 crore. It had posted net profit of Rs 6.14 crore in a year ago quarter and profit of Rs 8.01 crore in previous quarter. Revenue from operations grew 50 per cent year on year at Rs 54.33 crore during the quarter.

On August 14, 2023, the stock had turned ex-split in the ratio of 1:5, that is, one share of the company, which has a face value of Rs 10 per share sub-divided into five company shares with a face value of Rs 2 per share.

Avantel said that the rationale behind the split is to enhance liquidity in the capital market, widen shareholder base, and make shares more affordable to small investors.

With today’s surge, in past five months, the stock price of Avantel has zoomed 230 per cent. Thus far in the calendar year, it skyrocketed 305 per cent, as compared to 7.7 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. Currently, the stock is trading in the ‘X’ segment, which is only listed/traded at BSE.

At 11:31 AM; Avantel was quoting 15 per cent higher at Rs 310.50, as against 0.60 per cent gain in the benchmark index. The average trading volumes on the counter jumped multiple folds today. Around 1.7 million equity shares representing 2 per cent of total equity of Avantel have changed hands on the BSE, the exchange data shows.

Avantel is a company engaged in manufacturing of wireless front-end, Satellite Communication, Embedded systems, Signal Processing, Network management and Software development and rendering related customer support services.

For fiscal year 2023-24 (FY24), the Union Budget envisaged a total outlay of $550 billion (Rs 45.03 trillion). The Ministry of Defence has been allocated a total Budget of $72 billion (Rs 5.93 trillion), which is 13.18 per cent of the total budget.

The total Defence Budget represents an enhancement of $8.35 billion (Rs 68,371.49 crore), which is 13 per cent more than the Budget for 2022-23.

Avantel mainly offers fully indigenous solutions and caters to emerging needs of MoD under the “Atmanirbhartha” - self-reliance mission of the Indian government. The sustained increase of capital outlays in defence budget indicates positive outlook from customer side for new inductions / new purchases by defence forces and offers sufficient market space for the company to forge ahead and expand its footprint in the strategic sector.

Apart from positives of defence budget allocations, the recent initiatives launched by Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACe) and Indian Space Association (ISpA) also has garnered great interest in NGEs (Non-Government Entities) participation in the Indian Space technology domain, said the management.

In FY 2023-24, the company’s focus would be around development of HF / VHF /UHF SDRs for ship borne as well as landbased platforms and design & development of Air Defence Radar systems for Indian Army.