Quick Heal zooms 20% as board to consider share buyback on July 21

In 2019 and 2021, Quick Heal had bought back 6.33 million equity shares each via tender offer.

Shares of Quick Heal Technologies zoomed 20 per cent to Rs 199.80 on the BSE in Monday’s intra-day trade on the back of heavy volumes after the company said its board will consider buyback proposal in forthcoming meeting held on July 21, 2022.

The board will also consider and approve the un-audited financial results of the company for the quarter ended June 30, 2022 (Q1FY23).

At 10:42 am, Quick Heal traded 18 per cent higher at Rs 196.45, as compared to 0.8 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The trading volumes on the counter jumped over 20-fold with a combined around 1.1 million equity shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE.

The stock has recovered from its 52-week low of Rs 143.95 touched on June 20, 2022. It had hit a 52-week high of Rs 319.90 on August 2, 2021.

In general, the primary objective of a share buyback programme is to arrest the fall in the value of a stock by reducing the supply of the stock, which essentially pushes up the share price through a better price to earnings (P/E) multiple.

In 2021, Quick Heal had bought back 6.33 million equity shares at price of Rs 245 per share through tender offer. In 2019, it re-purchased 6.36 million equity shares at price of Rs 275 per share. Total value of buyback done by the company was Rs 366 crore (inclusive of taxes).

Meanwhile, for the financial year 2021-22 (FY22), Quick Heal reported 22 per cent year on year (YoY) decline in its consolidated profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 83.19 crore. Total revenue grew 2.6 per cent at Rs 341.90 crore on YoY basis.  Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) margin contracted 1122 bps at 31.26 per cent from 42.47 per cent in FY21.

Quick Heal Technologies is one of the leading providers of cybersecurity and data protection solutions with presence in B2B, B2G and B2C segments and multiple product categories – endpoints, network, data and mobility.