During the past week, the ICTOP10 Main Market stocks closed, with losing stocks dominating and rising stocks outnumbering declining ones in the Junior Market, following gains in both market indices. During the week, the JSE Main Market Index recovered all of the 3,385 points drop of the previous week by adding 3,900 points, but the All Jamaica Composite Index rose by 600 points and the Junior Market rose a mere 31 points.
The above set the stage for ICTOP10 Junior Market stocks to post five rising stocks to two that declined, while the ICTOP10 Main Market recorded five modest gains and four losses.
Price movements in the market resulted in two new TOP10 listings for the Junior Market and one for the Main Market. Lasco Manufacturing and Consolidated Bakeries dropped out of the Junior Market listing and Caribbean Cement fell out of the Main Market, resulting from a small price appreciation and re-evaluation of earnings per share following the release of nine months results, with ICInsider.com projected earnings now at $7. However, the stock still has the potential to go higher, with the current PE at just 7 times 2023 earnings compared to an average of 12 for the market.
Returning to the TOP 10 are Junior Market listed Paramount Trading and AMG Packaging. In contrast, Scotia Group returns to the TOP 10 Main Market listing, with the price dropping from $34.45 at the end of the previous week to $33.55 this past week. AMG returns, following the release of the full year’s results, show major improvement in direct operating cost with a solid increase in gross profit margin in the August quarter, which augurs well for earnings for the new fiscal year starting September, accordingly, I
CInsider.com upgraded earnings to $0.40 per share for the current year and that pushed the stock to 5th place on the TOP 10 list. Paramount Trading returns with a depressed price and gains by the two stocks dropping out of the listing.
Everything Fresh led the Junior Market listing with a rise of 14 percent to $1.60, followed by Lasco Manufacturing with a 10 percent climb and Elite Diagnostic with 6 percent to $1.88. Just two stocks fell with losses of just one and three percent. The Main Market closed the week with Caribbean Producers rising 4 percent to $9.50. Margaritaville fell 14 percent to $14.05, Key Insurance dropped six percent to $2.50 and General Accident with a four percent decline to $5.45.
The average PE for the JSE Main Market ICTOP 10 stands at 4.7, well below the market average of 12.1. The Main Market ICTOP10 is projected to gain an average of 359 percent by May 2024, based on 2023 forecasted earnings.
An indication of where stock prices could be by May 2024 can be seen from stocks with the highest values in the Main and Junior Markets.
In the Main Market ICTOP 10, a total of 15 of the most highly valued stocks representing 31 percent of the Main Market are priced at a PE of 15 to 109, with an average of 30 and 19 excluding the highest PE ratios, and a PE of 23 for the top half and 16 excluding the stocks with overweight valuations.
The PE of the Junior Market TOP10 sits at 5.9, just over half of the market, with an average of 10.8. There are 11 stocks, or 23 percent of the market, with PEs from 15 to 25, averaging 18.6, well above the market’s average. The top half of the market has an average PE of 15, possibly the lowest fair value for Junior Market stocks currently, with the market projected to rise by 244 percent by May 2024.
ICTOP10 focuses on likely yearly winners. Accordingly, the list includes some of the best companies in the market, but this is only sometimes so. ICInsider.com ranks stocks based on projected earnings, allowing investors to focus on the most undervalued stocks and helping to remove emotions in selecting stocks for investments that often result in costly mistakes.
IC TOP10 stocks will likely deliver the best returns up to the end of May 2024 and are ranked in order of potential gains, computed using projected earnings for the current fiscal year. Expected values will change as stock prices fluctuate and result in weekly movements in and out of the lists. Revisions to earnings are ongoing, based on receipt of new information.
Persons who compiled this report may have an interest in securities commented on in this report.