Info Edge gains 9% in three days, hits record high post Q2 results

The management said it was seeing gradual recovery of billings across all businesses

Shares of Info Edge (India) rose 5 per cent to its record high of Rs 3,851 on the BSE on Friday, gaining 9 per cent in three days after it announced the September quarter (Q2FY21) results on Tuesday. The stock surpassed its previous high of Rs 3,784, touched on October 14, 2020.

While announcing the September quarter results, the management said it is seeing gradual recovery of billings across all businesses. The quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) billings have grown by 32.3 per cent, it said.

However, in Q2FY21, the company’s billings dipped 17 per cent year-on-year (YoY) at Rs 249.5 crore. Operating EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) was down by 48.1 per cent at Rs 51.6 crore over the corresponding quarter in FY2019-20.

Info Edge (India) is among the leading internet companies in India. It runs leading internet businesses - Naukri.com - India’s no. 1 job site, Jeevansathi.com – one of the leading matrimonial portals, 99acres.com - India’s No.1 real estate portal and Shiksha.com – India’s leading education portal. The company also owns Quadrangle – an offline executive search business, and Naukri Gulf (a leading jobsite in the Middle East market).

Apart from this, Info Edge has made significant strategic investments such as zomato.com, policybazaar.com and happily unmarried.com etc.

“Info Edge reported billings decline in June quarter (Q1FY21) due to COVID-19, which was reflected in 19 per cent year-on-year (YoY) revenue de-growth in Q2 (due to the subscription based model of the business). Continued month-on-month improvement (after the trough of May’20) in billings is in line with our assumption of a gradual increase in revenues going forward,” Motilal Oswal Securities said in result update.

Given the company’s market positioning, multi-dimensional growth may be expected across its core businesses in the medium-to-long term. We expect long-term growth trends to play out at its operating entities, whose margins continue to inch up on high operating leverage. Furthermore, led by an inclination for profitability in investee companies, we expect consolidated losses to be curtailed over time, the brokerage firm said.