Info Edge shares rally 7%. What’s cooking?

Shares of Info Edge, which runs Naukri.com and Jeevansathi.com, rose nearly 7% to Rs 4377.75 in Monday’s intraday trade on BSE after the company posted a net profit of Rs 93.9 crore in the September quarter of the financial year 2022-23.

The company had booked an exceptional gain of Rs 8,269 crore in the year-ago period as it sold a part of its holdings in Zomato’s initial public offer.

Info Edge’s revenue rose 65% to Rs 601 crore in Q2FY23, while profit before exceptional items and tax rose 113% to Rs 149 crore.

Info Edge’s employee benefits expenses zoomed 71% to Rs 300 crore in Q2, and advertising costs jumped 69% to Rs 105 crore.

Revenue from its recruitment solutions business rose 60% to Rs 436 crore, the real estate classifieds segment grew 46% to Rs 70 crore, and other businesses expanded 120% to Rs 99 crore. While the recruitment segment grew its profit by 74% to Rs 253 crore, the real estate classifieds arm saw its net loss widen to Rs 32 crore.

The company recently invested Rs 135 crore with Coding Ninjas. With this investment, its shareholding has increased from 26.1% to 51%. “The investment in Coding Ninjas will aid the transformation of Naukri from a job site to a career platform that helps users throughout their career journey,” Info Edge said.

The company also announced an investment of Rs 75 crore in Adda 247, which is engaged in the business of delivering educational services and assistance to students preparing for Government examinations through software tech platforms and through the offline classroom-based methodology.

The brokerage firm JM Financial raised its target price for Info Edge from Rs 5,420 to Rs 5,450, which implies an upside potential of 24.5% from the current market price.

“We raise our standalone FY23-25E EPS by 5-7%, factoring in better than expected operating performance and treasury income in 2Q. Our SOTP-based TP for Info Edge (Naukri @55x FY24E EPS, 99acres @7.5x FY24E Sales, Jeevansathi @3x FY24E Sales and 25% holding company discount to our published valuations for Zomato and Policybazaar) increases a tad to Rs 5,450 from Rs 5,420,” said the brokerage firm.

At 11.23 am, the scrip was trading 6.18% higher at Rs 4351.5 over its last day’s closing price of Rs 4,098.25 apiece.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)