L&T Technology Services declines over 5% as firm cuts revenue guidance for FY24

livemint.com:

L&T Technology Services (LTTS) lost over 5 percent on Wednesday after the company lowered its revenue growth guidance for the current fiscal year despite in-line revenue for the quarter ended September 2023 (FY24). The stock shed as much as 5.5 percent to its day's low of ₹4,360.35. It has gained 29 percent in the last 1 year and 19 percent in 2023 YTD.

In comparison, Nifty IT has advanced around 11 percent both in the last year as well as in 2023 YTD. The firm posted a 5 percent rise in the September-quarter net profit at ₹315.4 crore as against ₹300 crore in the year-ago period. Meanwhile, sequentially, its net profit was up just 1.3 percent from ₹312 crore in the first quarter of FY24.

Its revenue grew 4.6 percent YoY to ₹2,386.5 crore in the quarter under review versus ₹2,281.7 crore in the same period last year. Sequentially, it as up 3.7 percent from ₹2,301.4 crore in the previous quarter. The firm said that the growth was led by the transportation vertical, which continued its strong momentum from last quarter, and plant engineering.

In dollar terms, the revenue came in at $288.1 million, marking a growth of 2 percent YoY. On the operating front, the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at ₹414 crore in Q2FY24, up 3.4 percent as against ₹401 crore reported in the June 2023 quarter. Meanwhile, its EBIT margin came ahead of expectations at 17.1 percent, however, it was muted on a quarter-on-quarter basis.