Shares of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-backed Just Dial shares rallied nearly 18% in opening trade on Thursday after the local search engine provider posted strong earnings in June quarter. The share price of the local search engine, in which Reliance Retail holds nearly 64% stake, touched a 52-week high of ₹1,195.90 today, rebounding 75% from its 52-week low of ₹694.80 hit on September 22, 2023.
Snapping previous session losses, Just Dial shares opened higher at ₹1,100, up 6.2% against the previous closing price of ₹1,035.25 on the BSE. In the first hour of trade so far, the smallcap stock jumped as much as 17.7% to ₹1,218.95, while the market capitalisation rose to ₹ 10,221 crore.
In the last one year, Just Dial shares have risen 49%, while it surged 39% in the past six months. The counter gained 47% in the calendar year 2024 and 18% in the last one month.
For the first quarter ended June 30, 2024, Just Dial reported net profit of ₹141.22 crore, up 69.33% compared to ₹83.4 crore in the same period last year. Sequentially, profit grew by 22% from ₹115.74 crore in the March quarter of FY24.
The total revenue rose by 13.6% to ₹280.57 crore in Q1 FY25 from ₹246.98 crore in the corresponding period last year, aided by expansion in lower tier cities and reducing churn rates. On quarter-on-quarter, revenue was up by 3.81% from ₹270.27 crore in Q4 FY24.
On the operating level, EBITDA stood at ₹80.6 crores, with margin of 28.7%. EBITDA margin witnessed 1,389 basis points YoY and 261 bps QoQ expansion, led by topline growth and cost efficiencies, both on employee costs and other expenses, the company said in its earnings report released on July 16.
As of June 30, 2024, cash and investments of the company stood at ₹4,755.5 crore compared to ₹ 4,159.2 crore as on June 30, 2023 and ₹4,625.4 crore as on March 31, 2024.
During the quarter under review, total traffic (unique visitors) climbed to 181.3 million, up 5.7% YoY and 6.0% QoQ. Around 85% traffic originated on mobile platforms, 11.3% on desktop/ PC and 3.4% on voice platform.
Total active listings stood at 44.9 million as on June 30, 2024, an increase of 18.2% YoY and 3.2% QoQ. The company added 1,373,563 listings to the database during the quarter. Out of total listings, 29.5 million listings were geocoded as on June 30, 2024, up 25.3% YoY. Total images in listings stood at 198.3 million, up 32% YoY and 5.2% QoQ.
Meanwhile, active paid campaigns at the end of quarter was at 591,650 up 7.9% YoY and 1.4% QoQ, with majority customers getting signed up on monthly payment plans.
Post Q1 numbers, JM Financial maintains ‘Buy’ call on the stock with a target price of 1,300 from 1,160 estimated earnings, saying that plans to distribute full year profits, cash generated to shareholders could drive significant value unlocking.
“The management mentioned that the board is considering various avenues such as dividend, buyback or any other means to ensure tax efficient distribution of 100% (or higher) of the company’s annual profits or incremental cash generated to shareholders. At CMP, the yield on payouts could be more than 6% assuming full distribution of FY25 PAT or FCFF plus other income,” the brokerage says in a note.
In September 2022, Reliance Retail, the retail arm of Reliance Industries, acquired sole control of a 25-year-old search and discovery firm. In July 2022, Reliance Retail had announced a deal to buy a controlling stake in Just Dial for ₹3,497 crore.
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