IRCTC shares gain ahead of Q4 earnings; here’s the near-term outlook

Shares of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) were trading in the green ahead of the March quarter and annual results today. The stock gained 2.37 per cent intraday to Rs 639.15 against the previous close of Rs 624.35 on BSE. It opened higher at Rs 626.05 on BSE. Total 1.70 lakh shares of the firm changed hands amounting to a turnover of Rs 10.72 crore on BSE. Market cap of IRCTC stood at Rs 50,820 crore.   

In terms of technicals, the relative strength index (RSI) of IRCTC stands at 55.7, signaling it's neither trading in oversold nor overbought territory. IRCTC stock has a one-year beta of 1.1. This signals the stock has very high volatility and carries higher risk. The large cap stock is trading higher than the 5 day, 20 day, 50 day and 100 day moving averages but lower than 200 day moving averages.  

However, the stock has been an outperformer in three years surging 125% during the period.  

Abhijeet from Tips2trade said, “IRCTC has strong resistance at Rs 637 on the Daily charts. A daily close below support of Rs 619 could lead to lower targets of Rs 604-578 in the near term." 

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Brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher expects IRCTC’s adjusted profit to rise 19.4 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 258.60 crore compared with Rs 216.60 crore in the quarter last year. Revenue is likely to climb 36.6 per cent YoY to Rs 944.20 crore from Rs 691 crore YoY, due to base effect and continued traction in non-convenience income & catering business. Online booking is expected to be at 10.4 crore tickets for the quarter. 

Prabhudas Lilladher is expecting EBITDA margin of 36 per cent against 40.1 per cent YoY due to falling contribution of high margin ticketing business. 

In the quarter ended December 31, 2022, IRCTC logged a 22% rise in net profit to Rs 256 crore against Rs 209 crore in the year-ago period.  

IRCTC’s revenue rose 70% to Rs 918 crore in Q3 as compared to Rs 540 crore in Q3FY22. The company announced interim dividend of Rs 3.5 per share. EBITDA climbed 16.7 percent to Rs 325.8 crore in Q3 from Rs 279.2 crore in corresponding period of previous year. 

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