Shares of Reliance-backed homegrown search engine Just Dial rose as much as 5% on Tuesday after the company announced its financial results for its fourth quarter ended March.

The local search engine's stock gained 5% in intraday trade to ₹689 apiece on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on the back of strong Q4 earnings.

Net profit of the company grew 278.4% year-on-year and 11.3% quarter-on-quarter to ₹83.8 crore for the fourth quarter. Revenue during the quarter stood at ₹232.5 crore, up 39.5% year-over-year and 5% quarter-on-quarter.

Shares of Just Dial have dropped 21% over the past year. The stock has gained 12% in 2023. The company's market capitalisation stood at ₹5,686 crore as of Tuesday.

Reliance Retail Ventures, a subsidiary of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate Reliance Industries, acquired a controlling stake (66.95%) in Just Dial for ₹5,719 crore in September 2021. In December 2022, India's largest listed company sold a 2% stake in the search engine to meet SEBI's minimum public shareholding norms.

Total traffic or quarterly unique visitors during the January-March quarter stood at 15.9 crore, up 10% year-on-year and 1.6% quarter-on-quarter. 86.1% traffic originated on mobile platforms, 10.4% on desktop/PC and 3.4% on our voice platforms.

The adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) margin stood at 15.3% in the March quarter, an improvement of 202 basis points quarter-on-quarter.

The company had ramped up hiring in previous few quarters which resulted in higher employee expenses in recent quarters, the Reliance-backed company says in a statement. However, operating expenses growth remained controlled in Q4 FY23 and operating leverage benefits are playing out, it adds.

Just Dial's cash and investments stood at ₹4,066.8 crore as on March 31, 2023 compared to ₹3,820.1 crore as on March 31, 2022 and ₹3,934.4 crore as on December 31, 2022.

Total active listings stood at 36.5 million as on March 31, 2023, an increase of 14.4% year-on-year. 1,483,553 listings were added to the database during the quarter. Out of total listings, 22.3 million listings were geo-coded as on March 31, 2023, up 20.6% year-on-year.

Total ratings and reviews stood at 143.0 million at the end of the quarter, up 10.5% year-on-year. Active paid campaigns at the end of the quarter stood at 538,220, up 16.6% year-on-year and 3.1% quarter-on-quarter.

Founded in 1996 by VSS Mani, Just Dial is a local search engine platform that provides search-related services to users across India through multiple platforms such as websites, apps, over the telephone, and text.

Just Dial stock

Just Dial shares rise 5% on jump in Q4 profit