KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 6): The shares and warrants of IFCA MSC Bhd rose in active trade on Thursday after the company announced its third quarter resulst yesterday.

At 9.17am, IFCA shares gained 5.04% or 3.5 sen to 73 sen with 12.57 million shares done, while its IFCA MSC-WA added 2.5% or 1.5 sen to 16.71 million units done.

IFCA MSC’s net profit jumped more than fivefold to RM8.53 million for the third financial quarter ended Sept 30, 2014 (3QFY14) from RM1.56 million a year ago, contributed by all business units, notably its goods and services tax (GST) compliance upgrade business.

Revenue for 3QFY14 rose 68.7% to RM25.75 million. For the nine-month period, its net profit increased more than sevenfold to RM11.95 million from RM1.64 million a year ago, while revenue was up 53% to RM58.06 million.

Meanwhile, CIMB Research has maintained its Add rating on IFCA MSC at 70 sen with a higher target price of RM1.05 (from 78 sen) and said the 3Q14 net profit was a record high for IFCA.

In a note Nov 5, the research house said that at 178% annualized 9M14 net profit, IFCA’s 3Q results was above house (no consensus) expectations due to higher-than-expected top-line growth.

“We raise our FY14-16 EPS by 36%-100% to reflect stronger top-line growth and target price also rises based on unchanged 21x 2016 P/E(in line with domestic peers).

“The stock remains an Add with potential catalysts such as record 3Q14 net profit and move to Main Board in 2015,” it said.