L&T share price falls on Q1 numbers; CLSA cuts target

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) share price fell in the early trade on July 23, a day after the company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 303 crore for the quarter ended June 2020, a drop of 79 percent compared to the previous year.

"The consolidated PAT attributable to shareholders of the company, including profits from discontinued business, is Rs 303 crore, reflecting a decline of 79 percent vis-a-vis PAT of Rs 1,473 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous year," L&T said.

The company's consolidated gross revenue came at Rs 21,260 crore for Q1FY21, registering a YoY decline of 28 percent.

The company's EBITDA came at Rs 1,620.5 crore and the margin at 7.6 percent.

The Q1 surprised with core engineering & construction order inflow of Rs 13,700 crore.

The broking house has cut FY21-22 EPS by 2-7 percent on the shutdown of Hyderabad metro till September. However, it sees the company as a good proxy for domestic capex, CNBC-TV18 said.

The company has a credible strategy to improve growth and RoE and it is at the cusp of the next domestic capex cycle upturn, while the stock is inexpensive at current levels, it added.

It has maintained 'buy' on the stock, saying the company reported decent performance in a tough quarter.

According to the research house, the order inflows were at Rs 235 billion, with 38 percent inflows from international orders, while infra orders were at Rs 113 billion.

The focus will be whether the company can give a guidance now or defer it to Q2. The working capital situation, which was elevated in Q4, they have built ample liquidity buffers, it added.

The core E&C was better than expected. The credit provisions in L&T Financial impacted earnings, however, the core E&C revenue & margin were a surprise.

EPC order inflows were expectedly down while the order book was healthy at Rs 3 lakh crore, CNBC-TV18 reported.

The company's revenue declined 28 percent YoY to Rs 213 billion and was in line with Motilal Oswal's expectation.

Its core EBITDA was down 71 percent to Rs 4.4 billion, 49 percent ahead of its expectation. The core EBITDA margin came in at 3.9 percent against the expectation of 2.4 percent.

The order inflow declined 39 percent to Rs 236 billion, while the order book grew 4 percent to Rs 3 trillion.

At 0917 hours, Larsen & Toubro was quoting at Rs 916, down Rs 4.95, or 0.54 percent, on the BSE.