Siemens gains 3%, hits record high on strong operational performance in Q1

Shares of Siemens hit a record high of Rs 3,219.90, up 3 per cent on the BSE in Wednesday's intra-day trade, after the company reported 80 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in consolidated profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 438 crore on a strong operational performance. The company follows October-September accounting year.

The healthy profit growth was driven by higher volumes, better price extraction, and positive forex & commodity effects. Revenue from continuing operations was up 17 per cent YoY at Rs 3,596 crore.

Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) came in at Rs 599.2 crore with Ebitda margin of 14.9 per cent (vs 10.3 per cent in Q1FY22). Gross margins expanded 220 bps to 33.5 per cent and 60 bps QoQ. The key reason for Ebitda beat was strong volumes, price hikes, lower input costs, and forex gain.

Siemens said the company's new orders from continuing operations stood at Rs 5,446 crore, a 6 per cent increase over the same period last year. The company had booked a large order worth approximately Rs 900 crore for Pune Metro Rail Line 3 corridor in Q1FY22. Consequently, new orders in Q1FY23 grew by 28 per cent on a comparable basis, it added.

The company's management said all businesses performed well in Q1FY23 driven primarily by continued expansion in capex across most market verticals. The substantial increase in the outlay for capex in Infrastructure including in the Railways made in the recent Budget announcements will give a continued boost to the Indian economy and consequently to all businesses, the management added.

"Siemens delivered a decent performance despite global headwinds. Mobility segment again recorded strong growth this quarter. Strong order inflows further strengthened the already healthy order backlog. Overall, Siemens is expected to further strengthen its leadership position through further penetration of automation and digitization products & services across segments," ICICI Securities said in a note.

Analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher, too, believe that segments such as data center, e-commerce, waste heat recovery, smart infra, digitalization, automation, intralogistics, building automation, railway electrification, charging infrastructure, decarbonization, smart metering, smart grids etc. would be key growth drivers going ahead. Moreover, recent large order wins in railways for 1,200 electric motives (9000 HP), worth Rs 26,000 crore will augur well in long run, it added.

The brokerage firm further said it remains positive on Siemens from a long-term perspective given its strong and diversified presence across industries, focus on digitization and automation products, product localization, strong balance sheet, healthy public & private capex, focus on cost efficiencies and recent large order wins in mobility business.