Dr Lal Pathlabs on Thursday reported a 56.4 percent year-on-year fall in net profit for the April-June period, missing Street estimates, due to a high base as a fall in COVID and allied tests ate into its profitability.

The New Delhi-based diagnostics company's revenue for the April-June period came in at Rs 502.7 crore, down 17.1 percent compared with the corresponding period a year ago though almost in line with analysts' expectations.

Dr Lal shares slid into the red after the earnings announcement, falling by as much as Rs 116 or 5.3 percent to Rs 2,054.4 apiece on BSE.

Analysts in a CNBC-TV18 poll had estimated Dr Lal Pathlabs' quarterly net profit at Rs 71.2 crore and revenue at Rs 505.3 crore.

The company's EBITDA margin — a key measure of operating profitability that determines the gap between earnings before components such as interest and taxes from expenses — plummeted by 790 basis points to 23.4 percent for the three-month period.

Analysts had pegged the company's quarterly margin at 25.5 percent.

COVID and allied tests contributed four percent to Dr Lal Pathlabs' revenue in the three months to June 2023, in line with estimates, according to a regulatory filing.

Analysts had factored in a fall to single digits from 36 percent in the year-ago period.

Revenue from the non-COVID segment, however, saw an increase of 25 percent to Rs 482 crore.

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(Edited by : Sandeep Singh)