At the start of trading today, Thursday, October 10, shares of fintech company IDT Corporation, a provider of communications and payment services, climbed nearly 4% to hit their highest level in almost three years. This followed a 21% gain the previous day. The surge is attributable to announced financial results for the fiscal-2024 fourth quarter and full year, featuring a 368% jump in earnings per share (EPS) and profitability across all four of the company’s core business segments in the quarter.
Details
In the first minutes after the opening bell on Thursday, IDT stock climbed to $48.43 per share, up 4% versus the previous closing price and the highest mark since mid-December 2021. It thus extended the previous day’s gains, when it closed 21.14% higher. IDT is now up around 37% since the beginning of the year and 71% over the last 12 months.
Earlier in the week, IDT reported 368% growth in GAAP EPS to $1.45 per share and a 2% pickup in revenue to $308.8 million in the fourth quarter. For the full year, EPS rose more than 60%, while revenue dipped 3% to $1.2 billion. The company also posted record gross profit and gross margin for both periods.
About IDT
Founded in 1990, IDT Corporation has four core segments: National Retail Solutions, which sells point-of-sale (POS) systems; BOSS Money, a money transfer service; net2phone, a provider of cloud-based communications services; and traditional communications. All segments posted profit for the fiscal-2024 fourth quarter.
CEO Samuel “Shmuel” Jonas was quoted in the press release as saying, “IDT delivered a strong fourth quarter highlighted by record adjusted EBITDA,” which grew 40% to $25.2 million. NRS, BOSS Money, and net2phone performed well, while traditional communications “delivered solid cash flows,” Jonas noted.
Traditional communications was the only segment where revenue fell for the fiscal-2024 full year, down 10% at $899.6 million. Still, it “improved its business economics and began to see benefits from cost reduction initiatives,” according to market research site GuruFocus. For context, the segment saw a 15% year-over-year decline in revenue in the 2023 fiscal year.
Analyst highlights
On Wednesday, October 9, Zacks Investment Research published a report calling the performance of the majority of IDT’s segments “impressive,” with the results of BOSS Money described as “promising.”
IDT enters the 2025 fiscal year with strong momentum, as all major segments are profitable and the focus is on further expansion and new growth initiatives, points out GuruFocus. Meanwhile, challenges are said to include the ongoing decline in the traditional communications segment’s revenue, limitations for expanding BOSS Money margins, and the need for “significant investment” in new initiatives.
According to MarketWatch, IDT is covered by one analyst, who rates the stock a “hold.”
