- Earnings season ends for most Jamaica Stock Exchange listed companies with a sleuth of results posted in the past week. With the Bank of Jamaica’s monetary policy squeezing the economy and hurricane disruptions added, most listed companies’ results reflect the battering inflicted by these developments. The end result, stock prices were mostly muted, with a few exceptions.
Some bright spots last week are, Transjamaican trading at a record high over $4, Scotia Group traded at 52 weeks’ high just shy of $49 and Sygnus Credit Investments at a 52 weeks’ high of $13.40, at the same time, the Jamaica Stock Exchange reported healthy third quarter results.
The two primary markets closed slightly down for the week, with the All Jamaica Composite declining 2,660 points or 0.7 percent, the JSE Main Index falling 4,228 points or 1.3 percent and the Junior Market Indices slipping 96 points or 2.6 percent.
Against the above developments, four stocks gained and 5 fell in the Junior Market TOP10, in the Main Market TOP10 only three stocks gained and 5 declined.
As was the case in the previous week, Guardian Holdings continues to hold on to the number one buy position by a wide margin, in all markets and the All JSE TOP10 compiled from all ordinary stocks listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange. This list is more exact than the Junior and Main Market TOP10 listing 20 stocks. Caribbean Cream now holds the number one spot in the Junior Market followed by Elite Diagnostics.
In the Junior Market ICTOP10, tTech ran up 17 percent to close at $2.50, following the additional 20 percent of the company’s shares acquired by Simply Secure taking their ownership to 69.1 percent, effectively triggering a mandatory takeover offer. Express Catering ran up a 9 percent rally to $3.50 and Caribbean Cream gained 6 percent to close at $3.35. Iron Rock Insurance fell 8 percent to $4.05 and Elite Diagnostic shed 5 percent to close at $2.10.
In the Main Market ICTOP10, the only winning stock of note is 138 Student Living, with a 6 percent rise to $4.32. Berger Paints dropped 17 percent to $7, with Guardian Holdings falling 6 percent to $297.20.
Following third quarter results, tTech, One Great Studio and Caribbean Assurance Brokers fell out of the Junior Market IC TOP10. The three were replaced by Jamaican Teas, Caribbean Flavours and the intra-island passenger carrie, Knutsford Express. Margaritaville entered the JSE Main Market ICTOP 10, replacing Jamaica Broilers. tTech and Caribbean Assurance Brokers dropped out of the All JSE TOP10 and were replaced by Margaritaville and AMG Packaging.
The average PE for the JSE Main Market ICTOP 10 stands at 5.1, well below the market average of 14.1 and the Junior Market TOP10 sits at 6.7, just more than half of the market, with an average of 13.1.
The Main Market ICTOP10 is projected to gain an average of 314 percent by May 2025, based on 2024 forecasted earnings and provide better values than the Junior Market with the potential to achieve 179 percent over the same period.
In the Main Market ICTOP 10, a total of 16 of the most highly valued stocks representing 31 percent of the Main Market have PEs between 15 to 103, with an average of 28 and 21 excluding the highest PE ratios, and a PE of 23 for the top half of the market with the highest values and 17 excluding the stocks with overweight values.
In the Junior Market IC TOP10 are 13 stocks, 27 percent of the market, with PEs ranging from 15 to 32 with an average of 21 and a PE of 17 for half of the market with the highest PEs.
ICTOP10 focuses on likely yearly winners, accordingly, the list includes some of the best companies in the market, but this is not always 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 on or around May 2025 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, resulting 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.