Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and mutual funds increased stakes in Paytm parent One 97 Communications Ltd for the second consecutive quarter in the July-September period.
In the September quarter, foreign investors' stake stood at 5.77 percent against 5.14 percent in the previous quarter and 4.42 percent in the March quarter, the company said in its latest shareholding pattern filing to BSE.
Mutual funds also increased their stake to 1.26 percent in the September quarter from 1.14 percent a quarter ago. In the March quarter, MFs' stake was at 1.05 percent.
Recently, brokerages such as Goldman Sachs, Citi, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and ICICI Securities have been bullish on the stock, citing continued strong revenue growth over the past three quarters.
The stock has six “buy” and three “hold” calls. It also has three “sell” ratings, according to Bloomberg.
In its recent quarterly update, the firm said its lending business witnessed a 224 percent increase from a year ago period to 9.2 million loans, while the value of loans disbursed grew 482 percent YoY to Rs 7,313 crore.
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In the offline payments vertical, the company deployed 4.8 million devices at merchant stores across the country.
The total merchant gross merchandise value (GMV) processed by the payments platform aggregated to Rs 3.18 Lakh crore, a year-on-year jump of 63 percent.
Foreign brokerage JP Morgan in its September report gave an “overweight” rating on the stock and raised the target price to Rs 1,000 a share.
It said Paytm is undergoing a model shift from chasing “growth at any loss” to “profitability at scale”.
"The company maintained its guidance of Adj. EBITDA profitability by September 2023–which we believe most investors remain sceptical of—rightly so, given the sharp increase in indirect expenses since listing, negating gains in contribution margin (CM) since last year," the report said.
As the investments in the business expansion are captured in the base, the increase in indirect expenses could moderate which could drive significant operating costs in Adj. EBITDA losses, it said.
“We think this will be key to Paytm achieving its guidance for Sep-23 Adj. EBITDA profitability," the report said.
Goldman Sach sees an overhang on the stock as the pre-IPO lock-in on Paytm’s shares (86 percent of outstanding shares as of June 2022) ends November 18. The brokerage firm has given a target price of Rs 1,100 and reiterated the “buy” rating on the stock.
According to the shareholding pattern, the retail investors, as represented by those with investments of less than Rs 2 lakh, reduced shareholding for the second straight quarter.
In the September quarter, their stake was at 6.37 percent, down from 6.86 percent a quarter ago and 7.72 percent in the March quarter.
Paytm was listed in November 2021 at the issue price of Rs 2,150 but dropped nearly 30 percent on the listing day. It is down nearly 70 percent from the issue price.
At 2.58 pm, the share was quoting at Rs 640.75 on the National Stock Exchange, down 0.33 percent from the previous close.
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