Healthcare diagnostic service provider Dr Lal PathLabs Ltd. is confident of achieving its FY26 revenue growth guidance of 11–12%, according to CEO Shankha Banerjee.
The top executive explained that the current guidance will be achieved primarily through volume growth, with no price increases factored in yet.
Speaking to NDTV Profit on Friday, Banerjee said that while higher growth is desirable, the company prefers a measured approach and will stick to its existing guidance.
“So right now, our revenue growth guidance remains between 11 to 12% for this financial year. We prefer to take things step by step. The infrastructure additions we’re making (through new labs or expanding the collection network) have a longer maturity trajectory and typically don’t correlate directly with immediate revenue growth. That infrastructure work will continue, but our current revenue guidance stands,” he said.
On strong Q1 margins, he noted that this was typical as H1 generally shows a better margin profile than H2. The company had previously guided for margin compression by 100 basis points for FY26 due to reinvestments.
Responding to a question of FY26 margin guidance, Banerjee said, “We have H1 is definitely a better margin profile than H2 for us. And we had guided compression for the full year compared to last year. So we will recalibrate by the end of H1. And then we’ll see what it looks like …..we should be able to do slightly better than whatever we had guided earlier.”
Commenting on the possible impact of seasonal factors like the early monsoon or any one-off events on the Q1 financial results, the CEO clarified that the company’s growth is sustainable and primarily reflects the impact of operational efforts.
“Our quick analysis suggests that this growth is not driven by any seasonal swings or preponed demand. It’s largely a like-for-like comparison with the same quarter last year. We believe this performance is sustainable and reflects the efforts we’ve been making over the last four to five quarters, which are now beginning to bear fruit,” he added.
Dr Lal PathLabs Q1FY26 Vs Q1FY25
In Q1FY26, Dr Lal PathLabs reported consolidated revenue at Rs 670 crore, up 11.3% from Rs 602 crore in Q1FY25. Ebitda rose 13.1% YoY to Rs 192 crore, compared to Rs 170. Margins improved slightly to 28.7%, versus 28.2% in the same quarter a year ago. Profit after tax (PAT) came in at Rs 134 crore, marking a 24.3% YoY increase from Rs 108 crore in the year-ago quarter.
Dr Lal PathLabs shares closed at Rs 3,175 apiece, up 0.76%. In contrast, the benchmark Nifty 50 ended at 24,565.35, down 203 points, or 0.82%.
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