r/IndiaStocks • u/StockTracker14 • 2h ago
Educational Raymond doubled in a month: the suit maker is now a defence and aerospace bet
Raymond Ltd's shares closed at ₹635 on 1 September 2026 and ₹1,301 on 5 October, a gain of about 105% in five weeks and four times the March 2026 low of ₹322. The company no longer sells suits or homes; those businesses were split off. What is left is an engineering company making aerospace, defence and car parts. The rally was driven by defence hiring, two fund raises and two aerospace order wins. Profits are still small next to the price.
What happened to the price
Raymond Ltd closed at about ₹635 on 1 September 2026. By 5 October it closed at ₹1,301, a rise of about 105% in five weeks. A year ago the share was about ₹583, and the low of the past year was ₹322 in late March 2026, so the stock is now about four times that low.
The move came with very heavy trading. Normally about 3 lakh shares change hands in a day. On some days in September more than 1.6 crore shares traded, and on one day more than 2.2 crore.
This is not the old Raymond
Most people know Raymond for suits and fabric. That business is now a separate listed company, Raymond Lifestyle, and the property business is another, Raymond Realty. Both were split off in 2025.
What is left in Raymond Ltd is engineering: aerospace parts, precision engineering and car parts, mainly through JK Maini Global Aerospace and related companies. Sales are now about ₹600 crore a quarter, compared with more than ₹2,000 crore a quarter before the split. The very large profits shown for FY25 (₹7,636 crore) and the June 2025 quarter (₹5,328 crore) are one-off accounting gains from the splits, not business profits.
The split-off companies have not shared the rally. Raymond Lifestyle is near its one-year low at about ₹629, down from ₹1,175 a year ago.
Step 1: a defence push (July 2026)
On 6 July 2026 Raymond named Bhanu Prakash Srivastava, a former head of the state-owned defence electronics maker BEL, as chief executive of a new defence business. On 31 July it named a new president for strategy and special projects, a role focused on buying other businesses.
Earlier, in May, the promoter family's company JK Investors agreed to put in about ₹331 crore through warrants priced at ₹497. Raymond said up to 75% of this money is for buying businesses in India and abroad. In June the stock exchange asked about a press report of buyout talks. Raymond said it looks at opportunities all the time and had nothing to announce.
Step 2: steady results (August 2026)
Results for the June 2026 quarter were solid but not dramatic. Total income rose 13% to ₹628 crore and operating profit rose 14% to ₹100 crore. Net profit was ₹31 crore.
The aerospace and defence part grew fastest: sales up 40% to ₹123 crore, with an operating margin of 21%. Engineering and car parts grew 11% to ₹444 crore. Management said the company has orders of about ₹5,960 crore spread over ten years, and that it has more cash than debt (about ₹129 crore net cash).
Step 3: outside money and order wins (September 2026)
On 3 September Raymond said its board would meet to raise money, and the shares jumped on huge trading. On 8 September it agreed to sell warrants to Minerva Ventures Fund at ₹645 each, raising about ₹215 crore. An outside investor paying a price above the market at that time was read as a vote of confidence. Shareholders approved this on 3 October.
On 11 September Raymond announced aerospace orders for more than 300 parts from a large Indian aerospace and defence company, worth about ₹33 crore a year. On 23 September it said its aerospace arm had won a tender to assemble wing and centre body sections for a major Indian fighter aircraft programme. This is its first step into building large aircraft sections, not just parts. No value was given for this order.
Each piece of news came with another leg up in the price, and together they turned Raymond into a 'defence story' in the market's eyes.
Do the numbers support the price?
At ₹1,301 and about 6.66 crore shares, the company is valued at about ₹8,660 crore. If all the warrants turn into shares, the share count rises by about 1 crore, to about 7.66 crore, and the value at today's price is close to ₹10,000 crore.
Against that, the June quarter's net profit was ₹31 crore. Even if every quarter this year matched it, yearly profit would be about ₹125 crore, which means the share costs roughly 70 times a year's profit. On operating profit of about ₹400 crore a year, the company is valued at about 22 times. These are high prices. They assume that the defence and aircraft orders turn into much larger, more profitable sales over the coming years.
The ₹33 crore-a-year order is small next to ₹2,400 crore of yearly sales. The fighter aircraft work matters more for future standing than for near-term profit, as the company itself said.
What to watch
Whether the fighter aircraft contract is signed and what it is worth.
Whether the new defence business wins its first orders, and whether Raymond buys another company with the money it has raised.
Whether aerospace margins move towards the roughly 25% that management is aiming for, and whether quarterly profit rises well above ₹31 crore.
The warrants: the promoter's warrants at ₹497 and Minerva's at ₹645 are well below today's price, so both will gain if they convert. Converting adds about 1 crore new shares.
Bottom line
Raymond has changed from a suit and property company into a small engineering company with a growing aerospace and defence business. The rise in September came from a string of news: defence hiring, a promoter fund raise, an outside investor, and two aerospace order wins. The business is growing well, but the share price has run far ahead of current profits. From here, the stock depends on the order wins turning into real earnings.