Policy Bazaar shares down 74% from record high, good time to buy? 

Shares of PB Fintech, the operator of Policy Bazaar, have plunged 74 per cent from their all-time high hit last November. The Policy Bazaar stock, which hit an all-time high of Rs 1,470 on November 17, 2021 was trading at Rs 386 on BSE today, down by Rs 1,084 or 73.74 per cent during the period. Compared to the listing price of Rs 1,150, Policy Bazaar shares have declined 66.43 per cent till date. The stock made its debut at a premium of 17 per cent over the IPO issue price of Rs 980 on November 15, 2021.

In today's trade, the Policy Bazaar stock touched an intraday low of Rs 382.5, down 3.12 per cent from the previous close of Rs 394.80. Policy Bazaar shares are trading lower than the 5-day, 20-day, 50-day, 100 day and 200-day moving averages. However, Policy Bazaar shares were trading nearly 3 per cent higher against the 52-week low of Rs 373.10. The stock hit its fresh low on October 21, 2022.

In 2022, Policy Bazaar shares have lost 59.62 per cent and declined 22.73 percent in a month.

Market cap of India's largest online insurer fell to Rs 17,258 crore. Total 0.31 lakh shares of the firm changed hands amounting to a turnover of Rs 1.20 crore.

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Tirthankar Das, Technical & Derivative Analyst, Retail, Ashika Stock Broking believes the stock is likely to fall further to a low of Rs 300 to Rs 310.

"Relentless selling pressure since the listing date has resulted in with a decline of over 73% from its all-time high of 1470. On technical parlance, sequential lower low formation has exhibited that the broader trend in the stock continues to be negative and until and unless it trades decisively above the immediate swing high of Rs 500, it is likely to remain so. To add further agony, in technical parlance presence of bearish symmetrical triangle formation for the past few months has increased probability of further slide in prices hereon and lower target of  Rs 300-310 can be seen in near term. However, due to the oversold reading in oscillator, some amount of relief rally or price consolidation can be seen in short term before embarking its journey further lower," said Das.

Abhijeet at Tips2trade said, "In continuation of the theme of a sharp correction in almost all of the stocks listed over the past two years, not surprisingly Policybazaar stock price has also taken a beating despite being a strong platform based business. The stock looks weak and a fall till Rs 340 looks possible. Investors should buy only on daily close above Rs 405. "

In September, IIFL Securities gave a bullish view on PB Fintech with a 12-month target price of  Rs 650.

"We expect PB Fintech to increase its contribution margin to 41 per cent (23.3 per cent in FY22) and EBITDA margin to 15 per cent by FY26, driven by strong operating leverage, higher employee productivity, sharp drop in ESOP costs and improved profitability of new initiatives, including the point of sale person (PoSP) channel," the brokerage said.

In the first quarter of this fiscal, PB Fintech reported a consolidated loss of Rs 204.33 crore against Rs 110.84 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal due to weak operating performance. The company, which also operates online lending platform Paisabazaar, reported a significant increase in employee expenses (up 82 percent YoY), and advertising & promotion expenses (up 173 percent YoY) for the quarter. Revenue from operations stood at Rs 505.2 crore, up 112.5 percent from Rs 238 crore in the year-ago period.