Molbio Diagnostics shares rally 9% as Jefferies initiates ‘high conviction top pick’ call for recently listed stock. Why is it bullish?
The international brokerage fixed a target price of Rs 1,600 apiece for the shares of Molbio Diagnostics, implying 27% upside potential from the stock’s previous closing price of Rs 1,255.60 apiece. Notably, the target price implies over 98% rally from the IPO price of Rs 807 per share. The shares of the company jumped around 9% on Wednesday morning following the bullish call, jumping to Rs 1,369.20 apiece on NSE.
Molbio Diagnostics shares listed at 21% premium over the IPO price at Rs 980 apiece on August 17. The stock then surged more than 72% in less than a month since its market debut to hit a high of Rs 1,686.80 apiece, before dropping around 26% to close at Rs 1,255.60 apiece on Tuesday.
Also read | Molbio Diagnostics shares list at 21% premium over IPO price on BSE, NSE
Jefferies highlighted that Molbio is an innovation-led med-tech company focused on developing next-gen diagnostic platforms to address critical healthcare challenges. Founded by scientists Sriram Natarajan and Chandrasekhar Nair in 2000, Molbio has placed innovation at the heart of its business, it said, adding that the company has successfully developed two platforms in-house and acquired one platform, maintains a rich pipeline of next-gen products and has secured 16 patents in India and 191 overseas.
Molbio’s Truenat is transformative innovation with strong growth runway: Jefferies
Built after 13 years of research and development, Molbio’s Truenat is an ultra-portable, battery-operated molecular diagnostics (MDx) platform that brings high-quality testing to the point of care, Jefferies highlighted. The platform supports testing for 30 diseases, is patent-protected in 100+ countries, and operates in an oligopolistic market, it noted. In comparison to platforms such as GeneXpert, Truenat is lighter, faster, and less infrastructure-dependent. With revenue of $130 million versus GeneXpert’s $3 billion scale, Jefferies believes Truenat is a transformative innovation with significant growth runway.
The international brokerage believes that TrueNat is only the first of several opportunities for Molbio. The company has already expanded beyond MDx with Prorad, a portable X-ray portfolio, and Optrascan, a digital pathology platform. With multiple other products under development, Jefferies believes Molbio’s innovation pipeline extends well beyond flagship product, Truenat.Also read | Jefferies’ 25% CAGR club: Paytm, Groww among 5 financial stocks that can deliver up to 25% returns
Jefferies sees steep growth runway for Molbio
Jefferies expects Molbio to deliver 22% revenue CAGR, driven by continued Truenat expansion in India and overseas, rapid scale-up of Prorad’s portable X-ray portfolio, and the commercial rollout of Optrascan in the US.
The global investment bank estimates a sharp 830 bps margin expansion for Molbio, driven by test-kit capacity utilization rising from 58% in FY26 to 77% by FY29, Optrascan scaling to 11% of sales by FY29 with 35% EBITDA margins versus current losses, and employee costs declining from 10% to 8% of sales and other opex from 22% to 18%. It forecasts the company to deliver EBITDA and PAT CAGR of 36% and 47%, respectively.
Disclaimer: This article has been written by Debaroti Adhikary, who is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or an Investment Adviser. Debaroti Adhikary and his/her ‘relative(s)’ (as defined under Section 2(77) of the Companies Act, 2013) do not hold any financial interest in the companies mentioned in this article as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of The Economic Times Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment. Brokerage disclaimers here.
