Bharat Electronics to consider interim dividend on March 5

Bharat Electronic share price has corrected 25 percent from its all-time high of Rs 340.

Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL), a Navratna PSU, has informed the exchanges that its board will meet on March 5 to consider an interim dividend for shareholders. However, the company has yet to announce a record date for the payout.

If the defence major is to announce an interim dividend exceeding Rs 3 per share, it would mark the highest payout since February 2017, the highest in 8  years,  when the company last declared a Rs 3 per share dividend.

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Historically, BEL’s dividend payments have remained modest. Over the past six instances since 2023, both interim and final dividends have been below Rs 1 per share. Between 2019 and 2022, the company declared dividends on nine occasions, ranging from Rs 1 to Rs 2 per share, with the highest being Rs 1.7 per share in August 2019.

The company last issued bonus shares in September 2022, offering two additional shares for everyone held (2:1). Before that, BEL also conducted buybacks in 2016 and 2018 and split its stock from Rs 10 to Rs 1 per share.

In the third quarter, the company achieved a turnover of Rs 5643.25 crore, registering a growth of 36.97 percent as compared with the turnover of Rs 4,120.10 crore recorded in the corresponding period of the previous year.

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Its net profit for the period increased by 47.3 percent from last year to Rs 1,316 crore. Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) reported a strong 57.5 percent year-on-year jump in EBITDA to Rs 1,653 crore for the December quarter. The company’s EBITDA margin expanded by 330 basis points to 28.7 percent, up from 25.4 percent a year ago. BEL’s order book stood at Rs 71,100 crore at the end of the quarter, reflecting its robust business pipeline.

BEL shares closed at Rs 256, higher by 0.12 percent from the last close on the NSE. The stock price has crashed over 12 percent since the start of the year. Bharat Electronics' share price has corrected 25 percent from its all-time high of Rs 340.

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