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.
Limners & Bards IC TOP 10 stock
Limners and Bards the latest IPO to hit the market, made it to the Junior Market TOP 10 with the potential to double in price, notwithstanding the critical information that is missing from the prospectus.
Jamaica Broilers returns to the main market list as Grace Kennedy graduated with a rise in the stock price. AMG Packaging released nine months results that showed 28 percent rise in pretax profit for the third quarter but that was not good enough. Earnings for the 2019/20 fiscal year, were downgraded to 20 cents per share. That level of earnings was not good enough to keep it in the TOP 10 list.
In the past week, the main market continues to hit new record highs, closing the week at another all-time high on its way to over 700,000 points for the All Jamaica Index. 
Momentum continues to move the market away from long-term resistance at 520,000 points.
The Junior Market is struggling, with few new company results out to help with upward move. Fontana and Elite Diagnostic two TOP 10 listings hit new record highs during the week with a few others hitting 52 weeks’ lows.
Junior Market stocks continue to struggle to get investors’ attention. With the market consolidating and the expectation of mostly positive results to the market is poised for a takeoff soon with the market highly undervalued.
The three most attractive Junior Market stocks are, Iron Rock with gains of 243 percent, followed by Caribbean Producers with projected gains of 233 percent and tTech with possible gains of 191 percent.
Sterling Investments heads the main market with 179 percent potential gains followed by Radio Jamaica with expected gains of 173 percent and Sygnus Credit Investments in third spot with the potential to gain 154 percent by March next year.
The main market, closed the week with the overall PE at 15.6 and the Junior Market remains for the second week at 10. The PE ratio for Junior Market Top 10 stocks averages 7.2 and the main market PE 8.9. These levels, point to a big upside for TOP 10 stocks over the next 12 months and Junior Market stocks in particular.
The TOP 10 stocks now trade at an average discount of 28 percent to the average for the Junior Market Top stocks and main market stocks trade at a discount of 43 percent to the overall market.
TOP 10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns within a 12 months period. Projected earnings, for each company’s current fiscal year, are used in determining, the selected stocks. The PE for and projected earnings for each stock are computed to show potential gains for the year, which are ranked in descending order. Potential values will change as stock prices fluctuate and will result in movements of the selection in and out of the lists for most weeks. Earnings per share are revised on an ongoing basis as new information is received that can result in changes in and out of the list.
This report is compiled by persons who may have interest in the securities commented on.
