Happiest Minds surges 14%, hits new high on heavy volumes

In the past three months, the stock has soared 96 per cent, against less than 1 per cent gain in the S&P BSE Sensex

Shares of Happiest Minds Technologies, on Monday, rallied 14 per cent and hit a new high of Rs 675 on the BSE in intra-day trade on the back of heavy volumes in an otherwise weak market. The stock was trading higher for the fifth straight day, zooming 30 per cent during this period. In the past three months, the stock has soared 96 per cent, against less than 1 per cent gain in the benchmark index.

At 12:00 pm, the stock of the IT consulting and software company was trading 6 per cent higher at Rs 630, as compared to 2.5 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. The trading volumes on the counter jumped 1.5 times with a combined 8.8 million equity shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE.

On March 24, Happiest Minds Technologies, a ‘Born Digital. Born Agile’, digital transformation and IT solutions company announced that along with Alyne, it has delivered a digital transformation platform for Cutover UK, a leader in Work Orchestration and Observability.

As part of this project, Happiest Minds will automate SOC 2 Type 1 Compliance which will enable Cutover with a competitive advantage as a SaaS provider and provide greater assurance to their customers, demonstrating their commitment to Cyber Security trust principles.

Last month, rating agency India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) upgraded Happiest Minds Technologies Limited’s (HMTL) long-term issuer rating with positive outlook.

The upgrade reflects a substantial increase in HMTL’s operating EBITDA margins in 9MFY21, coupled with a healthy cash flow from operations and initial public offering (IPO) proceeds, leading to a significant improvement in the credit metrics and liquidity position. The Positive Outlook reflects Ind Ra’s expectation of a continued improvement in financial performance in FY22; however, the EBITDA margins would marginally decline but would remain strong, Ind-Ra said in rating rationale.

Ind-Ra expects the margins to remain at similar levels during 4QFY21-1QFY22 and reduce from 2QFY22, following the normalisation of operations which will lead to an increase in the operating costs. Hence, the EBITDA margins in FY22 would be lower than FY21, although remain strong. Moreover, the company expects the revenue growth in 4QFY21 to remain at similar level as 9MFY21, which will be supported by an inorganic growth from newly acquired US-based Pimcore Global Services (PGS) in February 2021, it said.