Merkado Barkada
November 12, 2024 | 8:00am
DigiPlus [PLUS 19.96, down 0.5%; 47% avgVol] [link] posted a Q3 net income of P3.5 billion, up 248% y/y from its Q3/23 net income of P1.0 billion, and up 9% q/q from its Q2/24 net income of P3.2 billion. PLUS’s 9M consolidated revenue was up 223% to P51.6 billion, which the company attributed to an “increase in revenue from bingo and electronic games from retail, casino, network and licensing, and property segments of the Group, and commission income.” PLUS’s retail segment saw 9M revenues increase 231% to P50.7 billion (98% of consolidated revenues), while the casino segment was up 25% to P337.5 million, the network and licensing segment was up 18% to P301.3 million, and the property segment was up 12%. Its “FUTURE PLANS” section is essentially a copy/paste of what it’s been saying in quarterly reports all year (vision to be #1 digital entertainment group in PH, continued investment in new tech and products, integration of digital platform with physical locations, using “big data” to aggressively market).
MB bottom-line: PLUS is the flag-carrier for the PSEi bull run. The stock is up over 150% so far in 2024, and it’s up nearly 200% over the past 12 months. No stock has attracted as much retail attention, but that level of fame comes with some amount of (understandable) fanaticism. It’s natural for new investors to develop strong feelings for a stock when that bet provides returns as quickly and handsomely as PLUS has in recent years. It’s normal for people with limited investing experience to not appreciate how rare this run has been for PLUS. Perfect conditions for the rise of the PLUS “stockfan”, repeatedly aping crypto cliches (“have fun being poor”, etc) in the murky stock trading forums to hype the stock and suppress nuanced discussion. We saw this a few years ago when DITO [DITO 2.05 ?4.2%; 155% avgVol] went on that massive run. I don’t make that connection to warn investors that PLUS could be vulnerable to a DITO-level collapse, only to say that times change and I hope all of the “PLUS only” portfolios that I’ve seen in the wild will evolve over time to something more sustainable.
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