Persistent shares climb over 4% after Q3 PAT rises 35% YoY

Shares of IT firm Persistent Systems rallied 4.2% to Rs 4,129 in Thursday's trade on BSE after the company reported a 34.9% year-on-year (YoY) rise in its net profit to Rs 237.9 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2022. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 176.4 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

Persistent reported a 45.4% increase in the revenue from operations at Rs 2,169.3 crore during the October-December 2022 period, which stood at Rs 1,491.7 crore in the year-ago period, whereas the operating EBITDA of the company stood at Rs 401.5 crore in Q3FY23, up 59.9% YoY.

The total expenses of the company spiked 43.83% YoY to Rs 1,849.6 crore during the quarter.

The order booking for the quarter ended on December 31, 2022, was at $440.2 million in total contract value (TCV) and $326.3 million in annual contract value (ACV) terms.

The board of directors also declared an interim dividend of Rs 28 per share for the financial year 2022-2023.

At 9.48 am, the scrip was trading 3.7% higher at Rs 4,106 over its last day's closing price of Rs 3,961.5 apiece. In the last six months, the stock has risen 23%, however, it has fallen 4% in the last one year.

As per Trendlyne data, the highest target price for the stock goes up to Rs 8,330, while the average target price estimate is Rs 4,292, which shows an upside potential of 5% from the current market prices.

The consensus recommendation for the IT firm is a hold. Out of the 26 analysts covering the stock, 17 analysts have strong buy and buy ratings, while only four have strong sell and sell ratings and the remaining five have hold ratings.

“We are delighted to announce the 11th sequential quarter of revenue growth, fueled by our continued investments in innovative technologies and our differentiated Digital Engineering expertise. We won several large deals across industries and service lines, driving 20% sequential growth in total contract value (TCV) bookings," Sandeep Kalra, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Persistent said.

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