L&T shares tumble 6% as analysts cut target price

Shares of construction major Larsen & Toubro tanked as much as 6% in opening trade on Thursday after the company’s 8.3% margin guidance for the ongoing fiscal prompted some analysts to cut price targets.

Jefferies slashed its price target for L&T to ₹3,970 from ₹4,135. The brokerage says that the company's 15% revenue growth guidance for the financial year 2024-25 is low compared with the orders it won in FY24. Jefferies, however, retained its ‘Buy’ rating on the stock.

CLSA retained its 'Buy' rating on L&T but reduced the target price to ₹4,151 per share from ₹4,260 earlier.

The L&T stock fell 5.6% to hit a low of ₹3,290 on the BSE.

Net profit of the company grew 10% year-on-year to ₹4,396 crore for the quarter ended March. For fiscal 2024, the company posted a consolidated profit of ₹13,059 crore, registering a growth of 25% compared to the previous year.

Larsen & Toubro achieved consolidated revenues of ₹221,113 crore for the year ended March 31, 2024, recording a growth of 21%, facilitated by a strong execution of a large order book in the projects & manufacturing businesses. International revenues during the year at ₹95,086 crore constituted 43% of the total revenues largely led by a ramp up in execution of multiple international projects.

For the quarter ended March 31, 2024, consolidated revenues grew 15% to ₹67,079 crore. The share of international revenues during the quarter was 45%.

The Board of Directors recommended a final dividend of ₹ 28 per equity share.

The Company received orders worth ₹302,812 crore at the group level during the year ended March 31, 2024, registering a robust y-o-y growth of 31%. During the year, orders were received across multiple segments. International orders at ₹163,112 crore during the year comprised 54% of the total order inflow with higher ordering momentum witnessed in GCC countries.

The order inflow for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 stood at ₹ 72,150 crore, registering a marginal de-growth of 5% over the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Domestic order inflow grew by 17% as compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. International orders at ₹ 25,217 crore constituted 35% of the total. The consolidated order book of the group as on March 31, 2024, is at ₹ 475,809 crore, registering growth of 20% over the previous year, with the share of international orders at 38%.

“The year has concluded on a very strong note for us. We have secured Order Inflows of more than ₹3 lakh crore and Order Book is around ₹ 4.75 lakh crore,” says S.N. Subrahmanyan, chairman and managing director, L&T.

“In addition to the special dividend of ₹6 per share paid to our equity shareholders during the year, we are recommending a final dividend of ₹ 28 per share for the financial year 2023-24,” says Subrahmanyan.