1. Larsen & Toubro:

This construction & engineering company has risen 8.3% since October 30, after reporting its Q2FY25 results on that day and the announcement this week of the acquisition of a 21% stake in E2E Networks for Rs 1,407 crore. Its net profit and revenue grew 13% YoY to Rs 703.6 crore, and 20.1% YoY to Rs 62,655.9 crore during the quarter, respectively. This helped net profit and revenue to beat Trendlyne’s Forecaster estimates by 1.2% and 5.9% respectively. The company features in a screener of stocks with negative to positive growth in sales and profits with strong price momentum.

L&T’s revenue rose owing to improvements in infrastructure projects (51.9% of revenue), energy projects (14.2% of revenue), hi-tech manufacturing (3.5% of revenue), IT & technology services (19.2% of revenue), and financial services segments (6.2% of revenue). However, the company’s order inflow fell 10% YoY to Rs 80,045 crore due to a high base and heavy monsoons. 45% of the order inflow was from domestic clients, while international clients contributed 55%. 

In the earnings call, Larsen & Toubro’s Executive Vice President, P Ramakrishnan said, “With the current order book at Rs 1.5 lakh crore in H1FY25, we expect the order inflow to grow 10% YoY to Rs 3.3 lakh crore in FY25. This will help our group revenues to grow by 15% YoY during the fiscal year.”

Post the acquisition in E2E Networks, Larsen & Toubro entered a partnership with the company to provide GenAI solutions in India. L&T will utilise E2E’s cloud and AI cloud platform, and its expertise in data center management.

Post results, ICICI Direct maintains its ‘Buy’ call on L&T with a target price of Rs 4,262 per share. This indicates a potential upside of 16.9%. The brokerage believes the company’s order backlog growth and a pick-up in execution will help to beat its guidance for FY25. It expects the company’s revenue to grow at a CAGR of 14.7% over FY25-26.

2. Apollo Hospitals Enterprise: 

This hospital chain surged 6.6% on Thursday following the announcement of its Q2 results. Apollo reported a 15.6% YoY growth in revenue, at Rs 5,628 crore, with a 62.6% YoY increase in net profit at Rs 379 crore. Both revenue and net profit surpassed Forecaster estimates by 1.5% and 5.2%, respectively. JPMorgan has maintained an ‘Overweight’ rating on the stock as the results were in line with estimates.

If we look at the revenue mix, the healthcare services segment, which contributes to more than half of the total revenue, saw a 13.8% YoY growth. This growth was driven by a higher occupancy rate of 73% this quarter, up from 68% last year, along with a 6% increase in average revenue per patient. The company plans to add over 1,700 beds by FY26, with another 1,800 expected in the following 3-4 years.

Apollo HealthCo, the company’s digital health and pharmacy arm contributing over 40% of the total revenue, grew 17% YoY. This segment turned profitable this quarter, reporting a net profit of Rs 19 crore with an EBITDA margin of 2.3%. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Managing Director Suneeta Reddy said, “Apollo HealthCo will achieve a 7-8% EBITDA margin over the next three years, following the integration of Keimed.” She also noted that this merger will be EPS accretive, enhancing profitability from the first year.

Meanwhile, the retail health & diagnostics segment, Apollo Health & Lifestyle Ltd (AHLL), reported a Rs 4.6 crore loss this quarter. Reddy expects AHLL to reach profitability by the end of this fiscal year. Apollo’s management indicated plans to enter the insurance business to boost overall margins. They highlighted that the license and other related formalities faced a one-quarter delay but expect it to be completed by Q3.

Post results, Motilal Oswal maintains a ‘Buy’ rating on Apollo Hospitals, anticipating that its hospital business and Apollo 24/7 (part of Apollo HealthCo) will drive future earnings. They forecast a CAGR of 16% in revenue and 30% in net profit over FY25-27. With a target price of Rs 8,660, the stock presents a potential upside of over 16%.

3. ABB India:

This heavy electrical equipment company has fallen by 5.2% over the past week following the announcement of its Q3CY24 results on November 4. ABB India’s net profit grew by 21.4% YoY to Rs 440.5 crore owing to lower raw materials and inventory costs. However, it missed Forecaster estimates by 7.8%. Meanwhile, revenue increased 5.6% YoY to Rs 3,005.1 crore. 

During the quarter, revenue growth was driven by improvements in the robotics & motion (up 8% YoY) and electrification (11% YoY) segments. However, the process automation segment declined 12% YoY. Analysts highlighted that the company’s performance was below expectations due to lower-than-expected order inflows and execution. They note the quarter was impacted by a shift in the order book mix, with a higher share of long-gestation (to be executed in 18-24 months), large-sized orders. Large orders make up about 25% of the current order book.

In Q3, ABB India’s order inflow stood at Rs 3,342 crore, up 11% YoY. The electrification segment contributed 53% of the total inflow driven by large orders from the data centre segment for smart power and distribution solutions divisions.

ABB India’s order backlog as of September 30 stood at Rs 9,995 crore, an increase of 25% YoY, providing revenue visibility for the next few quarters. Commenting on this, T. Sridhar said “We are able to maintain the momentum of orders, comprising of both large as well as base orders, base orders being the maximum”.

Motilal Oswal maintains its ‘Buy’ rating on ABB India with a target price of Rs 8,500 crore. The brokerage remains positive on ABB due to its ability to benefit from high growth segments - electrification, data centre, and motion, as well as its wide offerings and deeper penetration network. It projects the company’s revenue and PAT to grow by 15% YoY and 51% YoY, respectively in CY24.

4. Cipla:

This pharmaceuticals company rose by 3% over the past week as the company’s manufacturing facility in Goa received a Voluntary Action Indicated (VAI) from USFDA after a routine inspection. Analysts expect that this could speed up the company’s gAbraxane development process. 

The drug is a chemotherapy treatment for various types of cancer. It was delayed for the past two years and in its recent commentary, the company’s management guided for a further delay till H1FY27 as it waits for further approvals.

The company declared its Q2FY25 result on 29th October. Its net profit rose by 15.2% to Rs 1,302.5 crore on the back of decline in finance and depreciation expenses, while its revenue rose by 5.7%. The firm beat Trendlyne’s Forecaster estimates for revenue by 0.2% and the net profit estimate by 7.2%. The stock appears in a screener of stocks where mutual funds increased shareholding in the past month.

In Q2FY25, the company’s revenue grew due to strong double-digit growth in the One Africa segment, emerging markets, and Europe. The One Africa business which includes South Africa, grew by 23.9% YoY on the back of Direct-to-Market (DTM) and Business-to-Business (B2B) categories in North Africa, and opportunistic tender wins, including vaccine tenders. However, the India segment grew by only 4.7% YoY as it witnessed slower seasonal growth.

Analysts note that currently, only one company—Sandoz(Switzerland), in partnership with Jiangsu Hengrui of China—has launched gAbraxane in the US market, with Cipla set to be the second player. Given the lack of competition in the generic market, they see this as a significant opportunity for Cipla. As a complex oncology product, Cipla has significant moat here and it’s expected to take longer for other players to enter the market. Analysts estimate gAbraxane could represent a $600-800 million opportunity, with Cipla potentially generating $80 million in sales by FY27.

The company’s CEO Umang Vohra said, “We are on track to achieve our margin guidance for the year, between 24.5-25.5%. The last 12 months have been audit heavy with our facilities of Invagen, Kurkumbh, Patalganga, China and Goa audited. All these facilities have been cleared with either a VAI or NAI.”On the drugs in development stage, he added, “De-risking of generic asthma drug Advair has been progressing as per expectations. We expect to launch it in H1FY26.”

KR Choksey has retained an ‘Accumulate’ rating on Cipla with a target price of Rs 1,680. The brokerage has increased its FY26 EPS estimate to Rs 62.6 from Rs 60.6 previously. It expects the company’s top-line to grow, especially in high-growth regions like South Africa and emerging markets. The brokerage anticipates a rebound in respiratory products in domestic business and launch of generic drug Advair by H1FY26.

5. Vedanta:

This metals stock was flat today, fell over 1.3% in the past week, and rose 5.9% up over the quarter. The company announced better than expected Q2 results that showed a turnaround in performance, reporting a net profit of Rs 5,603 crore for the September quarter as against a loss of Rs 915 crore in the quarter last year. Both the aluminium and oil businesses beat expectations, helping its overall net profit beat estimates by 79%. Weak zinc prices had hurt the business the previous year, 

Vedanta’s numbers were also helped by lower taxes -  taxes fell to Rs 2,030 crore this quarter, from Rs 9,092 crore in the same quarter last year. Net debt came down as well, falling by around Rs 4,400 crore QoQ to Rs 56,927 crore. This brings its Net Debt/EBITDA ratio to 1.49x, the best level in six quarters. 

Arun Mishra, the Executive Director of Vedanta, noted that this quarter delivered "our highest-ever first-half EBITDA of Rs 20,639 crore, with 46% growth YoY.” He said that he expected the rest of the year to be strong as well. “We believe the second half numbers will show a further ramp up, as major new projects come online." The cyclical metal business is right now in Vedanta's favour, with both aluminium and zinc prices up globally by double digits in the quarter.

The consensus from analysts on the stock is a buy.  In a separate press release, the company said that the proposed demerger of its businesses (where it will split its major businesses of zinc, oil, aluminium, power, steel and base metals into six separate listed entities) is on track. The demerger was expected to be completed by the end of FY25. However, the latest press note has mentioned no specific timeline or end date.

Trendlyne's analysts identify stocks that are seeing interesting price movements, analyst calls, or new developments. These are not buy recommendations.