Happiest Minds hits new high, rallies 103% so far in current fiscal

A combined 11.57 million equity shares of the company had changed hands on the NSE and BSE at the time of writing this report

Shares of Happiest Minds Technologies continued their northward movement in Thursday's session and hit a new high of Rs 1,099, up 9 per cent, on the BSE on the back of heavy volumes. A combined 11.57 million equity shares, representing 7.88 per cent of the total equity of the company had changed hands on the NSE and BSE till 01:13 pm. At the same time, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.05 per cent at 52,458 points.

Happiest Minds had made its stock market debut on September 17, 2020. Ashok Soota-owned IT services company had registered the biggest listing premium in a decade, as the stock listed at 123 per cent premium over its issue price of Rs 166 per share. Currently, the stock has rallied 562 per cent over its issue price.

Thus far in the current financial year 2021-22 (FY22), the market price of the company has more-than-doubled or risen 103 per cent on expectations of continued improvement in the financial performance. The S&P BSE Sensex, on the other hand, has gained 6 per cent during the same time.

For the financial year 2020-21 (FY21), Happiest Minds Technologies had posted a 126.6 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 162.46 crore compared with Rs 71.71 crore posted in FY20. The revenue grew 10.8 per cent YoY to Rs 773.41 crore. Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) margin improved 1,120 basis points (bps) to 27 per cent from 15.8 per cent last year.

The company said margins expansion was led by revenue growth, improved utilisation, realisation and lower attrition at Happiest Minds. Lower overheads on the growing scale and pandemic related savings, i.e. reduced rentals due to work-from-home, reduced travel and visa cost and other administrative costs also contributed to improved operational performance.