EduInvesting.in | May 12, 2025
🔍 Stock: eClerx Services Ltd. (NSE: ECLERX)
🧾 Sector: IT / KPO / BPO / “Excel Sheet Optimization Services”
🎬 Intro:
While you’re busy arguing over whether TCS or Infosys is cooler, this silent operator from Mumbai is out here doing BPO with a vengeance and margins tighter than Indian aunties at wedding buffets.
Meet eClerx Services – the stock that makes money helping others save money. Basically, it’s the D-Mart of Data Cleaning.
📦 What Exactly Do They Do?
“Sir, we offer high-margin knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) solutions.”
Translation:
“You give us your annoying manual work; we turn it into clean PowerPoints, reports, analytics, and cha-ching.”
Major Verticals:
- 📊 Financial Services – Trade processing, data ops, research (aka doing what bankers don’t want to do)
- 🛍️ Digital / E-commerce – Helping brands optimize online sales, product tagging, and customer support
- 📈 Analytics & Automation – Dashboards, RPA, data crunching, and more Excel than your MBA classes
💸 FY24 Highlights – “BPO toh hai, but margins dekh ke shock lagta hai”
| Metric | FY24 | FY23 | YoY Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ₹2,296 Cr | ₹2,093 Cr | +9.7% |
| EBITDA | ₹663 Cr | ₹567 Cr | +16.9% |
| EBITDA Margin | 28.9% | 27.1% | 🔥 |
| Net Profit | ₹467 Cr | ₹371 Cr | +25.8% |
| EPS | ₹86.8 | ₹69.1 | 🙌 |
| Final Dividend | ₹5/sh | ₹5/sh | 😇 |
28%+ margins in a BPO?! Bro, even my local chaiwala doesn’t earn that on samosas.
🚀 What Drove This Performance?
- 🔧 Automation + Upskilling = Lower costs, better billing
- 🌍 High-end clients in US & Europe – These aren’t call centers. They’re high-paying data gigs.
- 🤖 Digital Transformation Wave – Every big firm now wants better dashboards, not better sofas.
🧠 What Makes eClerx Unusually Interesting?
✔️ Super Sticky Clients – Their top 10 clients stick around for years
✔️ Lean Team – 14,000 employees, but high per-head productivity
✔️ Cash Rich – Debt-free and sitting on over ₹400 Cr in cash equivalents
✔️ Promoter Skin in the Game – 50.5% promoter holding, plus regular buybacks
This isn’t an IT giant. It’s a lean, mean Excel sheet machine.
📉 Valuation – Is This BPO Stock Undervalued?
| Metric | Value | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Market Cap | ₹8,000 Cr | Midcap flex |
| P/E Ratio | ~17x FY24 EPS | 👀 Below industry avg |
| EV/EBITDA | ~10.5x | Decent for 28% margins |
| Dividend Yield | ~1.1% | Okay-ish |
✅ Cheap compared to TCS (P/E ~29x) or Infosys (~26x)
✅ Premium to Boring BPOs like Firstsource (and deservedly so)
🧱 Risks – Every stock has a chhota sa villain
- 🇺🇸 Overdependence on Western clients – 95%+ revenue from offshore
- 💼 Employee churn & hiring costs – Attrition is the devil in this industry
- 💻 Generative AI Threat – Will clients automate instead of outsourcing?
But let’s be honest, half the clients don’t even know how ChatGPT works, so eClerx has time.
📈 Stock Price Movement
| Timeframe | % Move 🔺 |
|---|---|
| 1 Month | +8.5% |
| 6 Months | +29% |
| 1 Year | +52% |
| From 52W Low | +65% |
💥 Stock is trading near all-time highs. From ₹1,200 levels in 2023 to nearly ₹2,000 now.
🧪 Verdict – “Is it a multibagger or just multitab Excel?”
✅ Profit growth? Yes
✅ High margins? Yes
✅ Low P/E? Yes
✅ IT exposure without TCS-level boredom? YES.
EduInvesting Verdict:
“If you want a cash-rich, no-drama midcap IT play—eClerx is that one nerdy kid who’s always first in class and never makes reels.”
