NIIT Technologies scale fresh all-time high; stock surges 20% in 3 weeks

Shares of NIIT Technologies continued their northward movement on the BSE on Wednesday, surging 5 per cent to hit their all-time high of Rs 1,894 in an otherwise weak market.

The stock of the IT consulting & services firm has soared 20 per cent in the past three weeks, as compared to a 0.43 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. The S&P BSE IT index was up 3.4 per cent during the same period.

A strong rally in the stock price has led the counter to trade 9 per cent above its proposed share buyback price. Last month, the board of directors of NIIT Technologies had approved buy-back of up to 1.96 million equity shares at a price of up to Rs 1,725 per share aggregating up to Rs 337 crore.

Besides, the board of directors of NIIT Technologies is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, January 29, 2020, to consider the un-audited financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2019 (Q3FY20).

In the July-September quarter (Q2FY20), the company had reported a robust revenue growth on large deal wins and healthy order book. This is expected to continue in the coming quarters. In addition, the company’s growth profile is better than peers, according to analysts.

“On account of healthy traction in insurance and transportation segment, dollar revenue is expected to increase 2 per cent QoQ to US$152 million partially offset by seasonal weakness in banking vertical. Following that, rupee revenues may witness a growth of 4 per cent QoQ to Rs 1,080 crore. EBITDA margins may see an expansion of 40 bps to 18.7 per cent due to operational efficiency and currency benefit,” analysts at ICICI Securities said in Q3FY20 result preview.

Analysts at Dolat Capital, meanwhile, expect NIIT Technologies to report constant currency (CC) growth of about 1.7 per cent for the quarter as strong order traction in the past would overcome weakness in the BFS vertical. OPM to improve marginally on favourable FX movement and sustained operating leverage.

At 03:17 pm, the stock was trading 3 per cent higher at Rs 1,863 on the BSE, as compared to a 0.53 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 1.2 million equity shares changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE till the time of writing of this report.