Indra’s Board of Directors announced on Tuesday morning the departure of its current CEO, Ignacio Mataix, who will leave the company as soon as a successor is found for the position. This news felt like a jug of cold water for the share price, which, with a decline of 7.18%, lived its worst day on the stock market since last June. Back then, his share came to lose 14.7% of its value in just one day.
With this setback, the defense and technology firm reduced its annual earnings to 8.1%, compared to the almost 18% it earned after marking the maximum of 12.52 euros per share on March 1 and placing its price at the levels of October 2017.
Eight of the analysis houses that it collects Bloomberg They reaffirmed their positions on the stock on Tuesday, for which the market consensus recommends buying. Valuing their share at the 14.05 euros that they set as the average target price, the market sees a potential for Indra’s price of almost 22%. With this price, its shares would recover levels of April 2014. The Grupo Santander analysis team is the most optimistic with the value, estimating its share at 17 euros, which would mark 2008 highs.
“We believe that Indra is taking steps to improve its corporate governance image –the government owns the largest stake in the firmof 25.2%, through the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI) – and its benefits obtained from greater defense spending in the European Union and in Spain”, points out the JP Morgan analysis team, although they pointed that “a weak macro environment may add pressure on the company’s order intake in the coming quarters and therefore on the growth expected for 2023”.
Publication of results
On February 28, the company published its results for the last quarter of 2022, which surprised the market. “The results confirm the solidity of the company’s fundamentals, which are also supported by the increase in defense spending in the EU countries for the coming years,” Bankinter analysts pointed out. From Renta 4 they added that the firm’s accounts exceeded “the consensus forecasts at the operational level, with net debt at 10-year lows and order book at all-time highs that offers good visibility for revenue generation.
“We update our model following Indra’s latest results. Our estimates remain 1-4% higher than before, mainly due to recent positive results, an updated outlook and adjustment for recent movements in exchange rates. We push the raises our 2023 and 2024 profitability estimates by 1-2% to reflect the positive performance and guidance reported with the fiscal year 22 results,” they pointed out from JP Morgan.
