A sharp turnaround in the fortunes of advertising agency, Limners and Bards was manifested in the July quarter, with revenues and profit rising above those in the same period in 2022 and represents a reversal of the trend of declines during the first two quarter of the year with a 31 percent revenues decline with profit plunging 83 percent for the half year.

Kimala Bennett, Chief Executive Officer of The Lab.
According to Managing Director, Kimala Bennett, the improvement in the third quarter came from the acquisition of new clients and other initiatives pursued by them, some of which will bear fruit in the next fiscal year.
The third quarter performance while very positive was not enough to erase the reduction in the top and bottom line of the company, racked up in the period to April.
Revenues came in at $913 million for the nine months to July, down 18 percent from the $1.1 billion generated in a similar period in 2022 but revenues bounced a solid 17 percent from $320 million in 2022 July quarter to $374 million in the latest quarter ending July 2023. Profit after tax for the nine months to July, amounts to $57 million, down sharply by 60 percent from $144 million reported for the similar period in 2022 but profit for the quarter jumped 76 percent from $21 million in 2022 to just under $37 million in the current year.
Finance income jumped from just under $3 million for the nine months in 2022 to $8.7 million in the current year and nearly doubled from 2.5 million in the July 2022 quarter to $4.1 million in their latest quarter.
Although revenues are down during the current year, administrative costs rose 13 percent from $227 million to $256 million, but in the quarter administrative expenses moved up by 9 percent from $80 million to $87 million. Finance costs declined from $13 million to $8.7 million for the nine months and dropped sharply from $6 million in the July 2022 quarter to just $1.7 million.
Segment performance shows the company reporting results in three segments, Production, Media and Agency. During the July quarter, the Media segment reflected revenue growth of 34 percent to $225 million, Agency was up 44 percent to $50 million but Production declined by 22 percent to $99. Gross profit jumped by 83 percent to $56 million for the Production, Media climbed 16 percent to $30 million and Agency slipped 26 percent from $49 million to $36 million. Year to date revenues are down compared to 2022 by 35 percent in Production to $229 million. Media is down 11 percent to $532 million and Agency slipped 6 percent to $152 million.

The stock trades below its 50 day moving average since March. Projected earnings = 8 cents for the fiscal year with a PE of 21.
The fourth quarter of the fiscal year is usually the company’s weakest, however, the rebound in revenues in the third quarter reflecting improvement in production and advertising revenues compared to the fiscal half year, suggests that the improved performance in the third quarter could carry somewhat into the final quarter and record improvement in revenues and profits.
Accordingly, ICInsider.com forecast is for earnings of $0.08 per share for the current year ending October and $0.20 for the next fiscal year, compared with 6 cents per share for the nine months to July this year and 4 cents per share for the July quarter.
The stock traded on Monday at $1.72, with a PE ratio of 21 times ICInsider.com’s latest projected earnings of $0.08 per share with the value at the higher end of the market, which currently averages PE of 10.3 times earnings.
The company generated gross cash flows of $75 million and net cash provided by operating activities was just under $31 million with net cash flows of just $2 million after paying dividends of $34 million and ended the year with cash and cash equivalent of $355 million.
The company’s finances remain b with current assets of $787 million and current liabilities of $244 million given the net working capital of $543 million, borrowings of $100 million with shareholders’ equity of $598 million.