Navneet Education hits 3-yr high on strong Q1; stock soars 28% in 2 days

Shares of Navneet Education hit over three-year high of Rs 134.65 and rallied 14 per cent on the BSE in Thursday’s intra-day trade on the back of heavy volumes. In the past two trading days, the stock of the company, engaged in printing & publishing business, has soared 28 per cent after the company reported robust earnings for the quarter ended June 2022 (Q1FY23). It traded at its highest level since September 2018. Earlier, the stock had hit a record high of Rs 194 on June 13, 2017.

At 01:41 pm, Navneet Education traded 13 per cent higher at Rs 132.70, on the back of over five-fold jump in trading volumes. A combined 7.73 million equity shares have, so far, changed hands on the NSE and BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.38 per cent at 58,130 level.

Navneet Education is an educational syllabus-based provider that offers quality content across print and digital mediums. With over 60 years of experience as an educational publisher and stationery manufacturer, the company enjoys high brand recognition and market standing in the educational content and scholastic stationery segment.

The company owns a market share of approximately 65 per cent in Western India. Going ahead, the company plan to transform in-line with ever-evolving trends and aims to build a strong presence in the EdTech domain by leveraging its existing businesses.

For Q1FY23, Navneent Education reported standalone profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 149.72 crore, as against Rs 44.54 crore in Q1FY22. The company surpassed its entire PAT of the previous fiscal (FY22) of Rs 146.62 crore in first quarter of current fiscal (FY23).

Meanwhile, the company's standalone income from operations during the quarter more-than-doubled to Rs 682.78 crore from Rs 318.32 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (ebitda) margin improved to 31 per cent from 22 per cent.

With 26.31 per cent of India’s population between the ages of 0 to14 and around 150 million children who lack access to formal education, the educational sector holds significant potential for development.

That apart, the advent of new educational policy would bring changes in the curriculum of the school syllabus and will directly impact the company’s business positively, acting as a strong growth driver. Going forward, students discarding the old and second-hand books to buy new supplementary books on the basis of revised syllabus or curriculum would propel growth of the company.

“With an increasing number of schools converting from State boards to CBSE, we see an opportunity in the CBSE Board schools since the market for these books is expected to grow rapidly. Besides, as more and more English Medium Private State Boards start repositioning as CBSE pattern schools, there will be an increased need to utilise private publishers’ textbooks up to grade 8, aiding our publication business’ growth,” Navneet Education said in its FY22 annual report.