50-90% Dividends: 2 Multibagger Railway Stocks BEML IRCON Turn Ex-Dividend On February 16; Shares Fall By 2-4%

Two leading railway stocks, BEML and IRCON International have turned ex-dividend on February 16. The stock price however witnessed a sharp selling pressure despite the market being broadly bullish. BEML is a Miniratna, while IRCON holds Navratna status. Despite the latest drop, both BEML and IRCON are multi-bagger with triple-digit returns in a year.

BEML Dividend:

In the early trade, BEML share price dipped as much as 2.3% to hit an intraday low of Rs 3035.30 apiece on BSE. At the time of writing, the stock traded at Rs 3086.85 apiece, lower by 0.63%. Its market cap was over Rs 12,855.03 crore.

In a year, BEML shares have risen by 119% as of now.

This Miniratna railway stock has declared an interim dividend of Rs 5 per share having a face value of Rs 10 each for the financial year 2023-24. In percentage terms, the dividend payout is 50% of paid-up share capital. The company fixed February 16 as the record date for payment of said interim dividend to the eligible equity shareholders.

Hence, BEML shares also turned ex-dividend on February 16.

In Q3FY24, BEML reported a jump of 1% in its revenue for the third quarter of 2024 from Rs 1036 crore to Rs 1047 crore, whereas its year-on-year (YoY) revenue reported a rise from Rs 2510 cr to Rs 2541 cr, registering a growth of 1%. Also, in the quarter, the employee cost for the company has dropped by 2% YoY basis, on consistent efforts towards reducing manpower costs. The EBITDA margins for nine months have improved by 34% from Rs 83 crore to Rs 110 crore in the current year over the previous year nine monthly period. Event the PAT for nine months up to December 2023 has improved from 0.56 crore to Rs 26 crore, whereas the PAT margin has improved from 0.02% to 1.02%.

BEML operates in three verticals viz. Defence & Aerospace, Mining & Construction and Rail & Metro and has state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities located at Bangalore, Kolar Gold Fields (KGF), Mysore, Palakkad. BEML has a very strong R&D infrastructure. BEML also has a nationwide network of sales and services.

IRCON International Dividend:

Also, turning ex-dividend in February, IRCON which is a Navratna stock, announced an interim dividend of Rs.1.80 per equity share on the face value of Rs.2/- each (90% of the paid-up equity share capital) for the financial year 2023-24. The company plans to pay the dividends from, Tuesday, 27th February 2024 onwards. February 16 is also the record date for IRCON to identify eligible shareholders for the interim dividend.

On its ex-dividend, IRCON shares took a massive hit by falling by 3.62% to an intraday low of Rs 223.45 apiece. Currently, the stock traded at Rs 225.85 apiece, lower by 2.6% with a market cap of Rs 21,241.55 crore.

Despite the latest hiccups, IRCON is also a multibagger with a 300.53% upside in a year as of now.

During Q3 of FY24, IRCON's revenue from operations increased by 22.9% to Rs.2,884.2 crore as against Rs.2,346.5 crore in Q3FY23. EBITDA was at Rs.378.1 crore, an increase of 63.2%, as compared to Rs.231.7 crore in Q3FY23. The Company's EBITDA margin stood at 12.6%. Meanwhile, Profit After Tax increased by 28.8% to Rs.244.7 crore in Q3FY24 as against Rs.190 crore in Q3FY23.

The core competence of IRCON is in Railways and Highways & the company reports to the Ministry of Railways. The company has executed projects operated in the areas of Railway construction including ballastless track, electrification, tunnelling, signal & telecommunication as well as leasing of locos, construction of roads, highways, commercial, industrial & residential buildings and complexes, airport runways and hangars, metro and mass rapid transit system, etc. The company has completed more than 128 projects in 25 countries across the globe and 401 projects in various states in India.