Navaratna Defence PSU BEL Stock Falls 3% After Q4; Rs 0.55/Dividend Announced; BUY/SELL?

Bharat Electronics (BEL) share price plunged by at least 3% on May 20th, after reporting its Q4 results for FY26. The heavyweight defence stock witnessed selling pressure despite its earnings being in-line with estimates. Not just that, BEL declared a final dividend reward of up to Rs 0.55 per share for the fiscal. The selloff was led by the broad-based selling in the overall market, and also some analysts lowered their rating to REDUCE on BEL which added to woes. Nonetheless, majority consensus on BEL stock is BUY.

Bharat Electronics Ltd Share Price

At the time of writing, BEL traded at Rs 411.05, down by 2.86% on BSE, with market cap of Rs 3,00,505.01 crore. The stock was near its intraday low of Rs 410.80 apiece.

Bharat Electronics Ltd Q4 Results

In Q4FY26, BEL reported a net profit of Rs 2,203.16 crore, higher from Rs 2,104.78 crore in the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, revenue from operations stood at Rs 10,177.17 crore in Q4FY26, also up from Rs 9,119,71 crore revenue recorded in Q4FY26.

FY26 net profit of the Navratna Defence PSU was at Rs 6,048.48 crore, registering a growth of 14.4% from Rs 5,288.25 crore in the previous fiscal. Meanwhile, FY26 revenue jumped by 16.15% to Rs 27,479.63 crore, as against Rs 23,658.01 crore in FY25.

As of April 1, 2026, BEL's order book position stood at Rs 73,882 crore.

Accordint to analysts at JM Financial, Bharat Electronics reported Q4FY26 results in line with consensus estimates but ahead of JMFe. EBITDA at Rs 29.6 billion rose 6% YoY (in line with consensus/7% beat on JMFe) with EBITDA margin at 29.1% in line with JMFe of 29.2% but ahead of consensus estimate of 28.3%. Order inflows (reported earlier) were robust at Rs 300 billion (+60% YoY), ahead of the company's guidance of Rs 270 billion, taking the order book to Rs 740 billion.

Analysts pointed out that BEL's earnings call which is scheduled on May 20th will be key as they await management commentary on guidance on order inflows for FY27 and outlook on margins.

Bharat Electronics Ltd Share Price Recommendation:

Accordingly, JM's analysts added, "We value BEL at 44x FY28E EPS of Rs 11, arriving at our TP of Rs 485 and maintain ADD rating."

On the other hand, analysts at Equirus Securities gave an absolute rating of 'REDUCE' on BEL despite another big margin beat by the company in the quarter. Also, FY26 orders are ahead of guidance, but Equirus analysts pointed out that OB-to-TTM sales slips further to 2.7x, which was concerning. The target by them is set at Rs 405 per share.

Overall, the consensus recommendation from 27 analysts for Bharat Electronics is BUY, as per Trendlyne.

Bharat Electronics Ltd Final Dividend

On May 19, BEL announced a final dividend of Rs 0.55 per share for FY26. This is subject to approval by the shareholders in the ensuing Annual General Meeting of the Company.

BEL is among those PSUs who have a strong track record of dividend rewards, bonus issues and even one hefty stock split.

Dividends: Since August 2003, BEL has rewarded investors with 52 dividends, as per Trendlyne data. In the last 12 months, the dividend payout stood at Rs 2.85 per share. Its current dividend yield stood at 0.68%.

Bonus Issues: BEL is among the top bonus-issuing companies under PSUs. Its bonus issue was of a 2:1 ratio in September 2015, while its second bonus was of 1:10 ratio in September 2017. The last bonus reward was a 2:1 ratio in September 2022. In total, BEL's bonus issues stood at a 5:12 ratio, taking into consideration all three bonuses.

Stock Split: BEL stock has split only once in its history. The ratio of the subdivision was 1:10 and the record date was March 17, 2017. Since then, BEL's face value is Re 1 each from the earlier Rs 10.

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