Profit jumps at the Lab as revenues fall

Revenues at Limners and Bards declined 11 percent in the January 2024 quarter to $219 million from $240 million in 2023 but a 16 percent decline in cost of sales resulted in gross profit falling by a mere 4 percent to $92 million from $96 million in 2023 and contributed in pretax profit jumping 216 percent to $20 million versus $6.4 million in 2023 before a recovery of $6 million in Impairment recovery on financial assets.
The net results after tax coming at a healthy $26 million sharp jump from just $6 million in 2023, a B 330 percent year over year increase with earnings per share coming in at 3 cents versus 1 cent in 2023. ICInsider.com forecast is for full year earnings of 15 cents per share, even as the advertising market is currently weighted down by soft demand that affects revenues for both production and media business segments.
Helping to boost profit was a 21 percent decline in administrative costs to $62 million from $79 million in the prior year.
Depreciation charges increased marginally to just over $6 million from $6 million in the prior year and finance costs climbed to $2.6 million from $3.5 million in 2023.
The operations delivered gross cash flows of $32 million and ended with Net cash provided by operating activities of $126 million, with accounts receivable contributing $126 million.
Segment results show varying fortunes during the quarter compared to that of the previous year with production generating just $29 million in revenues versus 58 million in the previous year with a gross profit of $10 million down from $29 million in 2023 while the media segment delivered $118 million in revenue down from $135 million in the previous year with profit slipping marginally $17.7 million in 2024 from $18.4 million in the previous year while there was a significant climb 32 percent in the Agency segment to $71.6 million from $54 million in 2023 with gross profit of $61 million up Bly by 37 percent from $44 million in the previous year.
Current assets amounted to $732 million up from $624 million in 2023 with cash and cash equivalent amounting to $469 million up from $327 million in the previous year and current liabilities were $181 million in 2024 versus $140 million in the previous year and long term liabilities amounted to $104 million $102 million in the previous year. Shareholders’ equity ended at $624 million up from 1748 billion in 2024.
In the directors’ report to shareholders, “the company remains fully focused on executing its strategy of diversifying its income, through engaging new clients and the introduction of new service lines. These strategic endeavours are aligned with our company’s expansion strategy into emerging markets, all aimed at fostering sustainable growth, increased revenues, enhanced profitability; while proactively anticipating the evolving needs of our valued clients and enhancing shareholders’ value.
In keeping with the above objective, we “have successfully completed the pilots for two TV/web series, “SEEN” and “Jenna In Law, additionally, pre-production for our first feature film, “Love Offside,” is currently underway, with production scheduled to commence in June 2024.”
The stock traded on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange at $1.34, on Friday, with a PE of 9 times projected earnings for 2024 which is below the market average of 12.5.