BEL needs to boost order inflow

Charged up

- Ashish Agrawal

Investors in Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) stock are tracking whether it will meet its FY25 order inflow guidance of ₹25,000 crore. Last week, the public sector defence company said it secured more orders worth ₹577 crore, bringing the total order inflows in FY25 so far to nearly ₹14,000 crore.

While announcing the December quarter (Q3FY25) earnings, BEL's management retained its order inflow guidance for the financial year even as the momentum had been rather muted until then. "Many projects are in the pipeline, which we are hopeful to get in the next two months," the management said in the Q3 earnings call on 30 January, when the order inflow was around ₹11,000 crore.

"It has a track record of delivering on its plans, as seen in FY23. BEL has met/beaten its result expectations, but subdued ordering has weighed on the stock apart from sector de-rating," said Jefferies India analysts on 7 March.