BEL Q3 results: Net sales, order book may jump 10-16%; key things to watch

Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) is expected to report double-digit growth in sales and a 10 per cent jump in its order book for the December quarter, but could see margins falling year-on-year (YoY) due to product mix. Analysts tracking the defence sector said the management’s commentary on execution pace, order pipeline, and major developments across key upcoming programmes such as QRSAM, AMCA and Kusha would be key monitorables.

Nirmal Bang expects Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) to report 0.6 per cent YoY rise in net profit at Rs 1,319.40 crore on 11 per cent YoY rise in sales at RS 6,405.50. Order book is seen rising 9.9 per cent sequentially to Rs 78,047 crore from Rs 71,000 crore in the September quarter and a similar 71,100 crore in the same quarter last year.

Antique Stock Broking sees profit after tax for BEL rising 11 per cent YoY to Rs 1,454 crore on 16 per cent YoY rise in sales at Rs 6,677 crore. Overall, Antique sees its coverage defence universe to report 14 per cent YoY increase in PAT on 15 per cent YoY growth in sales, led by healthy execution of order book.

"We expect BEL to report revenue growth of 14 per cent YoY driven by healthy execution of a strong orderbook.
Ebitda margin is likely to decline by 100 bps due to product mix. During the quarter, BEL announced an order
inflow of Rs 5,000 crore across various products," said PL Capital. 

This brokerage sees adjusted profit at Rs 1,432 crore, up 8.8 per cent YoY. It sees sales rising 13.7 per cent YoY to Rs 6,551 crore.

"BEL has seen a strong start to ordering in 9MFY26. For the defence PSU, we are baking in 17 per cent topline growth and 28.5 per cent Ebitda margins for Q3FY26," said Kotak Institutional Equities.

It noted that BEL has achieved 67 per cent of its FY2026 guided order inflow (ex-QRSAM). The brokerage sees BEL to report reported profit at Rs 1,479 crore and sales at Rs 6,737 crore.

"We model 28.5 per cent Ebitda margin (down 40 bps YoY/ down 90 bps QoQ) for Q3FY26. Quarterly variations in margins are a function of product mix," it said.

Ahead of its earnings, BEL shares were trading 0.71 per cent higher at Rs 419.30 on BSE. The stock is down 3 per cent in January so far. This is against 9 per cent slide in the BSE Capital Goods index during the same period.