Happiest Minds promoter Ashok Soota sold 6% stake via block deal; stock plunged 9%

Happiest Minds Technologies Ltd on Tuesday said its promoter and executive chairman Ashok Soota offloaded a 6 per cent stake (91,36,490 equity shares) in the open market via bulk deal. "This is to inform you that I, Mr. Ashok Soota, Promoter of Happiest Minds Technologies have sold 91,36,490 equity shares (6%) in the open market through bulk deal on June 25, 2024," the company stated in a BSE filing.

Post this transaction, Soota's stake in the firm was reduced to 44.13 per cent from 50.13 per cent earlier.

The company announcement came after market hours today. Shares of Happiest Minds took a sharp beating in today's trading session as the counter settled 9.44 per cent lower at Rs 830.45.

Around 1.37 crore shares changed hands today on BSE. The figure was way more than the two-week average volume of 1.27 lakh shares. Turnover on the counter came at Rs 1,147.56 crore, commanding a market capitalisation (m-cap) of Rs 12,645.66 crore.

On technical setup, the counter traded lower than the 5-day, 10-, 20-, 30-, 150-day and 200-day simple moving averages (SMAs) but higher than the 50-day and 100-day SMAs. The stock's 14-day relative strength index (RSI) came at 45.30. A level below 30 is defined as oversold while a value above 70 is considered overbought.

The company's stock has a price-to-equity (P/E) ratio of 56.83 against a price-to-book (P/B) value of 9.48. Earnings per share (EPS) stood at 16.14 with a return on equity of 16.67.

Separately, the stock traded ex-dividend earlier this month on June 14. The company has declared a final dividend of Rs 3.25 per share for the financial year 2023-24 (FY24).