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Shares of Info Edge soared 9.8 per cent to Rs 6,234.95, also its fresh 52-week high, on the BSE in Monday's intraday trade after the tech-firm posted robust business growth in the March quarter.
At 10:42 AM, shares of the company were up 8.3 per cent at Rs 6,149 per share as against 0.52 per cent rise in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. The stock surpassed its previous 52-week high of
For the quarter ended March 2024, Info Edge reported standalone billings of Rs 826.9 crore, up 10.45 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) from Rs 748.6 crore earnings during Q4FY23. For the whole FY24, billings rose 5 per cent to Rs 2,495.9 crore.
Segment-wise, the owner of jobs portal Naukri.com reported billings worth Rs 625.4 crore from the Recruitment Solutions vertical during Q4FY24, clocking a growth of 7.2 per cent Y-o-Y. For FY24, billings for the segment stood at Rs 1,883.2 crore.
Similarly, billings from 99acres for real estate stood at Rs 131.1 crore at the end of the recently concluded quarter as against Rs 103.7 crore reported in Q4FY23. Billings were Rs 385.1 crore at the end of the 2023-24 fiscal year.
"The strong recovery in Naukri billings suggests a possible bottoming-out of IT hiring. The company's management is fairly optimistic about the slowdown in IT hiring to have bottomed out, given near-peak utilisation levels among large IT services companies," noted analysts at Nomura.
Going ahead, the brokerage expects Info Edge to report year-on-year billings growth of 15 per cent in FY25 compared to a flattish number in FY24. The brokerage has given a 'buy' rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 6,210.
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Q4FY24 preview
For the March quarter, analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities expect Naukri to report 3 per cent Y-o-Y and flat Q-o-Q revenue growth, while 99acres, they said, could report 23 per cent Y-o-Y and 5 per cent Q-o-Q revenue growth.
"Other segment (JS and Shiksha) are likely to report 17 per cent and 8 per cent Y-o-Y revenue growth, respectively, with JS monetisation still remaining subpar. Non-IT sector to support continued weakness in IT sector for Naukri," they said. The consolidated sales for Info Edge are pregged at Rs 601.3 crore, up 6.6 per cent Y-o-Y and 1 per cent Q-o-Q.
Ebitda is seen growing around 11 per cent on year and 1.3 per cent sequentially to Rs 243.8 crore, and net profit is seen at Rs 218.6 crore, up 10.6 per cent Y-o-Y/2.4 per cent Q-o-Q.
Those at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, meanwhile, project total sales to grow 6.8 per cent Y-o-Y/1.2 per cent Q-o-Q at Rs 602.4 crore. Profit, however, it said may fall 6 per cent Q-o-Q to Rs 201 crore.
On the bourses, shares of Info Edge have surged 52 per cent on the BSE as against over 20 per cent rally in the benchmark Sensex index. The shares hit record high of Rs 7,465.40 on October 19, 2021.
