Kremi back in IC TOP 10

In a week when several companies released quarterly results, few had any positive information to move prices forward. Against this development, some stocks pulled back a bit, flowing from weaker than expected results. Last week’s drop out candidate,

Caribbean Cream posted big gains in profit in Q1.

Caribbean Cream, closed the week at $4.10, to return to the Junior Market TOP 10, at the expense of Mailpac Group. There were no changes to the main market list.
The Mailpac Group operations enjoyed a 33 percent rise in revenues for the six months to June and a 36 percent increase in profit over the similar period in 2019. Flowing from those results, IC Insider.com revised the earnings per share down to 20 cents, thus reducing the potential gain based on 2020 earnings, moving it out of the top listing.
The top three stocks in each market saw little change in ranking, leaving the top three Junior Market stocks, with the potential to gain between 281 to 676 percent by March 2021. Caribbean Producers heads the list, followed by Lasco Financial and Elite Diagnostic, the focus on all three is on the 2021 fiscal year results, that are projected to show recovery from the 2020 financial year final numbers.
The top three Main Market stocks with expected gains of 189 to 223 percent are Berger Paints followed by Radio Jamaica and JMMB Group.
This week’s focus: 138 Students Living reported a 44 percent increase in revenues to hit $334 million from $223 million in the June 2019 quarter and a 60 percent rise in the nine months to $1.09 billion. The company moved from a loss of $17 million in the 2019 third quarter to a profit of $132 million in 2020 and from a loss of $60 million in the nine months to June, to a profit of $402 million. Operating cost fell in both periods compared with the 2019 cost. The big problem is that the company continues the extremely poor practice of not showing operating and administrative expenses separately, making it impossible to see what gross margins are. The significant increase in profit is due to claims made on the University going back to 2019, which are booked in the current year that distorts earnings from ongoing operations. While earnings per share for the quarter is an attractive 32 cents and year to date 97 cents. Earnings from ongoing operations suggest that the full year’s results should be in the order of 40 cents after a regular tax charge.
The targeted average PE ratio of the market is 20 based on the profits of companies reporting full year’s results, from now to the second quarter in 2021. Both the Junior and Main markets are currently trading well below this level, an indication of the potential gains ahead. The JSE Main Market ended the week, with an overall PE of 15.2 and the Junior Market at just 10.9, based on IC Insider.com’s projected 2020-21 earnings. The average PE ratio of the Junior Market has been slowly rising, reflecting better profit opportunities in the Main Market and narrowing the gap. The PE ratio for the Junior Market Top 10 stocks averages a mere 5.9 at just 54 percent to the average of the overall Junior Market. The Main Market TOP 10 stocks trade at a PE of 8.2 or 54 percent of the PE of the overall market.
The average projected gain for the Junior Market IC TOP 10 stocks is 278 percent, and 152 percent for the JSE Main Market, based on 2020-21 earnings, an indication of potentially more significant gains in the Junior Market than in the Main Market.
IC TOP 10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns up to March 2021 and ranked in order of potential gains, based on possible profit for each company, taking into account the earnings and PE ratios for the current fiscal year. Expected values will change as stock prices fluctuate and will result in movements of the selection in and out of the lists for most weeks. Revisions to earnings per share are ongoing, based on receipt of new information.