Stationery and Office Supplies (SOS) is up 72 percent in 2022 and is heading to more than $20 with projected earnings of $1.25 for the year. SOS made the ICTOP15 list in January at 12 spot to produce a 200 percent gain for the year. It came into TOP10 in the week ending January 21, in the 6th spot and exited the TOP10 on the week ending April 22.
Stationery & Office Supplies – Montego Bay office.
Over the past two weeks, company results have been coming out fast and furious, with many posting solid increased profits over the first quarter of 2021, as the economy continues to recover and cost savings also takes hold to help lift profits to record levels in many cases.
One company to benefit from improved results for the first quarter results to March is SOS, with revenues rising 37 percent to $427 million and profits surging 344 percent to $81 million before gains from the sale of a property, investors belated warmed to the stock pushing it to a 52 week’s high of $11.02 and out of ICTOP10. Based on the results, ICInsider.com upgraded earnings from $1.10 to $1.25. Investors in the stock can look for a possible stock split this year if the price rises.
It is well worth noting that the Junior Market peaked at 4,669.78 points at the market opening on May 10 and pulled back to 4,444.25 on Friday as new quarterly results tempered investors in some overvalued stocks that have started to adjust downwards as reality sets in. Among them is Fesco, which was selling at a PE of 50 times the current year’s earnings. There seem to be more painful adjustments to come for investors in this stock. MailPac also suffered a reversal in price after the first quarter results disappointed investors, with lower revenues and earnings.
It is not unusual for investors to take a break after mid-May each year, with most results released and return in late June or early July just ahead of the new earnings season for the half year. Against this background, trading could move sideways for a month or two, but the Lasco companies, Access and Medical Disposables could light up the market when they release results in a few weeks.
Berger Paints annual report had good news for investors to digest.
In the Main Market, Jamaica Stock Exchange was added to the ICTOP10 recently but slipped out last week and reported solid results for the March quarter, with profit jumping 84 percent after revenues rose 37 percent. The projected earnings were downgraded to $1.30 from $3, leaving the stock just about appropriately valued. Berger Paints came out with solid earnings, resulting in our projection being upgraded from $1.70 to $2.35, helped by a sharp cut in other operating expenses from $160 million in 2021 to $117 million and now heads the Main Market TOP10 list.
Elite Diagnostic gained 3 percent for the week at $4, but the promise that the company showed when it was listed has started to show again, with revenues in the third quarter rising 24 percent to $161 million and profit surging to $28 million from $4.4 million in 2021. Based on the results, earnings for the current year ending in June are projected at 24 cents and 55 cents for the 2022/23 fiscal year.
Former ICTOP10 listing, Tropical Battery earnings were downgraded to 18 cents per share for this year, following the release of March half year results.
Access Financial jumped 22 percent last week, and is down 16 percent this past week at $21.50, and attracted more buying interest as the release of year results approaches. tTech tumbled 8 percent during the week and AMG Packaging 7 percent. Caribbean Assurance Brokers was the only stock with any meaningful gain, with a rise of 6 percent.
This week, there was no change to ICInsider.com TOP10 Main Market listings, but the Junior Market has two, with Lasco Distributors just slipping out. Jetcon Corporation suffered a big price decline during the week to close at $1.35 to reenter the list. tTech earnings were revised down to 25 cents after the company posted flat sales in the first quarter and a small loss and fell out of the top listing to be replaced by Dolphin Cove is poised to grow much more this year as improving tourism traffic that April numbers show is virtually back to normal provide a big boost to future earnings.
Investors should be on the lookout for companies with March year end that have not yet reported earnings. Amongst the grouping are the three Lasco companies that could get price moving punch from the results. Watch also Access and Medical Disposables sitting on the TOP of the list, with the company said to be generating profit from the acquisition of Cornwall Enterprises, well ahead of the two year target. ICInsider.com earnings projections of 70 cents per share for the 2022 fiscal year assume that earnings would include profit from the subsidiary and should result in a big jump in the stock toward $14.
The primary mover in the main market was Caribbean Cement that fell 12 percent to $61 as buying interest in the stock remains low, even as the first quarter results suggest the stock is highly undervalued, no other stock had any serious change.
The average PE for the JSE Main Market TOP 10 ends the week at 6.2, well below the market average of 15.3, while the Junior Market PE for the Top 10 sits at 6.3 versus the market at 13.9. The Junior Market TOP10 is projected to gain an average of 226 percent by May 2023 and the Main Market 215 percent.
ICTOP10 focuses on likely yearly winners, accordingly, the list may or may not include the best companies in the market. ICInsider.com ranks stocks based on projected earnings to highlight winners from the rest, allowing investors to focus on potential winning stocks and helping to remove emotional attachments to stocks that often result in costly mistakes.
IC TOP10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns up to the end of May 2023 and are ranked in order of potential gains, based on the possible increase for each company, considering the earnings and PE ratios 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.
ICTOP10 focuses on likely yearly winners, accordingly, the list may or may not include the best companies in the market. ICInsider.com ranks stocks based on projected earnings to highlight winners from the rest, allowing investors to focus on potential winning stocks and helping to remove emotional attachments to stocks that often result in costly mistakes.
The Main Market that ICInsider.com forecast to deliver a 14 percent rise for the year struggles to break from consolidation so far, with a rise of just 4.8 for the four months to April and is consistent with a 14 percent increase for the year. It is quite likely that the market PE could climb closer to a PE of 18, which will push the annual gains to around 30 percent if the financial stocks show good increases in profit for the year. That is a very likely situation as the hike in interest rates is driving net interest income sharply upwards.
In addition to the Top15 selection for each market at the start of the year, we added a few stocks. There were nine winning stocks with good gains. The list includes AMG Packaging 73 percent, Dolphin Cove 47 percent, Elite up 26 percent, Everything Fresh 83 percent, iCreate 263 percent, Jetcon 75 percent, Spur Tree Spices 215 percent, Stationery and Office Supplies 46 percent and Tropical Batteries up 124 percent for the year to date and up 64 percent since ICInsider.com added it was added to the TOP10 on February 25. Caribbean Cream, down 7 percent, is the only Junior Market stock selection to fall.
The big TOP15 winners for the Main Market are Caribbean Producers, up 42 percent, Jamaica Stock Exchange at 22 percent, JMMB Group at 16 percent and Proven at 14 percent. Berger Paints, down 7 percent, Jamaica Broilers, with a fall of 3 percent and Scotia Group, down one percent, are the only losers in this segment.
ICTOP10 focuses on likely yearly winners, accordingly, the list may or may not include the best companies in the market. ICInsider.com ranks stocks based on projected earnings to highlight winners from the rest, allowing investors to focus on potential winning stocks and helping to remove emotional attachments to stocks that often result in costly mistakes.
Scotia Group is ICInsider.com’s new stock for the future that comes into the Main Market ICTOP10 at number 9, with projected earnings of $4.47 per share as the group generates increasing income from the sharp hike BOJ induced hike in interest rates on investments.
ICTOP10 focuses on likely yearly winners; accordingly, the list may or may not include the best companies in the market. ICInsider.com ranks stocks based on projected earnings to highlight winners from the rest, allowing investors to focus on potential winning stocks and helping to remove emotional attachments to shares that often result in costly mistakes.
Heading the new list are Productivity Business Solutions, Guardian Holdings, Sygnus Credit Investments, Jamaica Stock Exchange and JMMB Group in the Main Market. At the same time, the Junior Market’s top five are Elite Diagnostic, Medical Disposables, Jetcon Corporation, Caribbean Cream and Access Financial Services. Most of the Junior Market companies suffered from fallout in the economy in 2020 and beyond due to the Covid19 and are recovering. Some of these could deliver above average gains.
Lasco Manufacturing rose 14 percent to close the week at $5.70, AMG Packaging popped 13 percent to $3.15, while Caribbean Assurance Brokers put in a 9 percent rise to close the week at $2.40. Iron Rock Insurance and Tropical Battery added 6 percent to close at $3.60 and $2.62, respectively. In the Main Market, JMMB Group rose 7 percent to $45.95 and Jamaica Broilers lost 7 percent to end at $27.25.
ICTOP10 focuses on likely yearly winners, accordingly, the list may or may not include the best companies in the market. ICInsider.com ranks stocks based on projected earnings to highlight winners from the rest, allowing investors to focus on potential winning stocks and helping to remove emotional attachments to stocks that often result in costly mistakes.
IC TOP10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns up to the end of May 2023. They are ranked in order of potential gains, based on the possible increase for each company, considering the earnings and PE ratios 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.
The Junior Market potential gains for the TOP 10 Junior Market stocks stand at 109 percent, much lower than the Main Market at 137 percent, an indication that Main Market is greatly undervalued. The top three stocks in the Junior Market are Elite Diagnostic, Medical Disposables followed by
The average PE for Junior Market is well ahead of the average of 17 times 2020 earnings achieved at the end of March last year in moving to 21.8 based on ICInsider.com’s 2021-22 earnings, pushed up mainly by five stocks, with EduFocal and Main Event over 100 times 2021 earnings. Excluding the 5 highest PE ratios over 40, the average would be around 18. The JSE Main and USD Markets at 15.8 is well off from 19 in 2021. The TOP 10 stocks trade at a PE of a mere 8.6, with a 45 percent discount to that market’s average.
The depressed PE of the main market is an indication that bigger investors are reluctant to be aggressive in buying into the market currently, with inflation, rising interest rates and war populating the headlines.
IC TOP10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns up to March 2022 and ranked in order of potential gains, based on the possible increase for each company, considering the earnings and PE ratios 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 per share are ongoing, based on receipt of new information.
Caribbean Assurance Brokers come back in the Junior Market list, while Sterling Investments makes it back to the Main Market listing at the expense of TransJamacian Highway after just one week, but investors should keep an eye for this one.
During the past week, the Junior Market TOP10 listed Access Financial, Lasco Financial and Iron Rock Insurance gained 6 percent each while Medical Disposables fell 9 percent and Tropical Battery slipped 5 percent. In the Main Market, the primary movers are Guardian Holdings with a 4 percent gain, while JMMB Group fell 7 percent and Proven Investments declined by 5 percent.
The potential gains for Main Market stocks moved from 124 percent last week to this weeks’ 127 percent, with the top three being JMMB Group followed by Guardian Holdings and Sygnus Credit Investments all projected to gain between 168 and 193 percent versus 161 and 193 percent last week.
The average PE for the JSE Main Market is 21 percent less than the PE of 19 at the end of March and 24 percent below the target of 20 to the end of March this year. The Main Market TOP 10 average PE is 9 representing a 43 percent discount to the market, well below the potential of 20. Around 15 stocks or a thirty percent of the market trade at or above a PE of 19, with most over 20, for an average roundabout 25, suggesting that the accepted multiple is between 20 and 25 times current year’s earnings. The depressed PE of the main market may be indicating that bigger investors are reluctant to be aggressive in buying into the market currently with inflation, rising interest rates and war populating the headlines.
ICInsider.com ranks stocks based on projected earnings to highlight winners from the rest, allowing investors to focus on potential winning stocks and helping to remove emotional attachments to stocks that often result in costly mistakes.
In a week when the Junior Market came back to life to close at a new record high on Friday, following a new record on Thursday, the market index closed on Friday over the 4,100 mark for the first time and ended at 4,168.16, with a 21.6 percent gain for the year to date. At the same time, the Main Market continues to consolidate around the 440,000 points level, on the All Jamaica Composite Index. 
In TOP10 developments this week, returning to the Junior Market are 
are trading at or above this level, averaging around 23.
ICInsider.com ranks stocks based on projected earnings to highlight winners from the rest, allowing investors to focus on potential winning stocks and helping to remove emotional attachments to stocks that often result in costly mistakes.
The All Jamaican Composite Index lost 1,330.54 points to settle at 439,591.90 and the JSE Main Index slipped 1,508.82 points to 387,382.91. 
The ICInsider.com PE Ratio chart covers all ordinary shares listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange and shows companies grouped on an industry basis, allowing for easy comparisons between same sector companies as well as the overall market.
The Jamaica Stock Exchange Junior market is trading at a