Latest news with #Ernst&Young
Mint
an hour ago
- Business
- Mint
Three multibagger penny stocks to watch out for in 2025
Everyone dreams of hitting that multibagger jackpot. The hunt never really stops. But when those massive returns come from penny stocks, it feels all the more thrilling. Often ignored and flying under the radar, penny stocks rarely make headlines for doubling or tripling in value. And over the past year, quite a few of these tiny stocks have done just that, delivering over 100% returns and grabbing attention across Dalal Street. Sure, they come with high risks and wild swings, but their sharp rallies are a sign that investors are actively chasing hidden gems, whether it's a turnaround story, a niche play, or a rising trend. As we look ahead to 2025, here are a few such penny stocks that have already made a splash and might just be worth keeping an eye on. #1 Nagarjuna Agri Tech The company is engaged in the field of floriculture, such as cultivating and selling roses. It's based near Bangalore, Karnataka. The company produces 11.25 million (m) cut roses to suit the international market. The company is exporting cut roses to Europe and Middle Eastern markets in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In the last one year, the stock has delivered a jaw-dropping 335%. What's really caught investors' attention is the sharp rise in promoter holding, a classic sign of insider confidence. From just 31.45% in September 2024, promoter stake surged to 53.8% in December, and further to 60.4% by March 2025. That kind of buying usually speaks louder than words. And there's a bigger story playing out here. As per an IBEF-backed Ernst & Young report, the global agritech industry is set to grow at a solid 12.1% CAGR between 2020 and 2027. With rising demand in India and abroad, agritech is quickly becoming a popular choice for investors. The company's presence in this space could make it one to watch as the sector heats up. #2 IMEC Services IMEC Services was formerly known as Ruchi Strips & Alloys. The company is in the business of management and consultancy services related to IT, engineering, and technical fields, as well as trading various goods. In the last one year, the stock has skyrocketed—rallying more than 900%. A key reason behind this sharp rise could be the company's turnaround in profitability. In the September 2024 quarter, although revenue dropped to ₹12 million from ₹70 million, what stood out was a turnaround to a net profit of ₹5 million, compared to a net loss of ₹23 million in the previous year. The momentum continued in the December quarter, where revenue climbed to ₹15 million (up from ₹4 million YoY), and net profit surged sharply to ₹9 million, reversing a ₹12 million loss. #3 Chandrima Mercantiles The company tradees in a variety of products, including building materials, yarn, jute, jewellery, and ornaments. Currently, its focus is on trading textiles, gold, silver, jewellery, bullion, and related items. In the last one year, the company's share price has surged over 210%. A factor behind the strong rally has been its steady revenue turnaround in three consecutive quarters. Its revenue jumped from ₹20 million in the June 2023 quarter to ₹62 million in the June 2024 quarter. This continued with ₹81 million in September 2024 and ₹61 million in December 2024, marking three back-to-back quarters of strong revenue performance. The net profit also mirrored this positive trend, with ₹6 million and ₹7 million in the June and September quarters, and ₹4 million in December, matching last year's numbers. Recently in May 2025, the company approved a 1:10 stock split,where one existing equity share of face value ₹10 will be split into ten new equity shares of face value Re 1 each. The process is expected to be completed within six months post-shareholder approval. Conclusion Who would not want to convert a small investment into a big profit? Penny stocks giving multibagger returns can be exciting, but they come with a lot of risk. These are usually small, lesser-known companies that do not receive much attention, and that is why they can surprise on the upside. But this also means that they are less stable than most companies. If you are considering investing in multibagger penny stocks, it's crucial to do thorough research—look into the company's fundamentals and management quality. Investors should evaluate the company's fundamentals, corporate governance, and valuations of the stock as key factors when conducting due diligence before making investment decisions. Happy Investing. Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only. It is not a stock recommendation and should not be treated as such. This article is syndicated from
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
I quit my job at EY after 13 years to launch my own business. Here are the 5 lessons I learned from my Big Four career.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Joshua Lee, a 45-year-old serial entrepreneur and venture partner in Brea, California, who started his career at EY (then called Ernst & Young). The following has been edited for length and clarity. I graduated from UCLA in June 2000 with a degree in business economics and a minor in accounting. My accounting minor led to unexpected opportunities. I spent a lot of time with professors who advised me to apply for companies recruiting on campus, which included Ernst & Young (EY). But the real inspiration came from my uncle Jack. After my father passed away when I was young, Uncle Jack stepped in as a father figure. He worked at BDO Global and encouraged me to speak with consultants and shadow his colleagues so I could decide for myself if the Big Four path was right for me. It was — EY turned out to be the best place to launch my career Working there came with the good, the bad, and the ugly. The learning curve was steep, but the personal growth was exponential. I'd walk into rooms feeling like the least experienced person there and walk out knowing I brought real value. My confidence built with each client and project. Another highlight was the people. I formed deep bonds of friendship and camaraderie in the trenches — dealing with impossible due dates and late nights, and surviving board meetings that go off the rails. I'm still friends with my classmates from my first year at EY, and my colleagues from over 12 years ago. But burnout is real. The long hours, tight deadlines, and constant pressure to perform can drain you if you don't set firm boundaries to protect your mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. And like any large organization, the politics and bureaucracy can be draining. At the end of the day, it's an accounting firm run by accountants. Metrics often win out over strategy. In 2013, after 13 years, I decided to quit and launch my own business after I realized staying would only be about the money and title. My faith played a significant role, showing me EY wasn't where I was supposed to be. Working on the EY's Entrepreneur Of The Year Award — a global program that recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs — opened my eyes to how much I admired people who took leaps of faith, and I knew I had to do the same. Still, my experience at EY became rocket fuel. It gave me the grit, confidence, and the playbook to succeed in any professional arena. After selling my fintech startup Ardius to Gusto in 2021, I took a sabbatical to redefine what "retirement" means to me. It's less about the absence of work and more about doing what I love with people I care about. I'm now back to building and investing, having co-founded both Gumshoe Ventures and a new startup with my 15-year-old son called Admisio, which helps streamline the college admissions process. Here are the five biggest lessons I took with me from my time at EY: 1. Take calculated risks At EY, you're trained to identify risk. However, success stems from learning to identify opportunities and capitalize on them. You can't succeed unless you're willing to step outside your comfort zone. Some of my proudest moments came when I felt like I was teetering on the edge of failure. That pressure pushed me to accomplish things I didn't think I could, such as launching and scaling my fintech startup entirely remotely during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. With no in-person meetings, we built the team, closed our seed round, managed compliance, and got acquired, all while navigating a highly regulated space. As an investor, identifying risk has helped me determine the best founders. Some people run toward risk and can see the opportunities that others don't. We love founders who take educated risks and want to solve really big problems, because these are the game changers. 2. Family first I've seen too many colleagues miss birthdays, weddings, and other significant milestones due to work. It's easy to get caught up in the hustle. Of course, I struggled with this as well. But friends come and go. Jobs change. Family is forever. If you don't have close family nearby, build a community that feels like one and show up for them. I don't regret missing specific events as much as I regret being physically present but mentally checked out and thinking about work. Today, I prioritize family first. I've been married to my wife for 20 years, and have four kids. I create harmony by building structure into my day, like committing to school drop-offs, team sports, and homework. Over time, I stopped chasing "work-life balance" and instead focused on " work-life harmony." Some weeks are intense, others are lighter, and that's OK. What matters most is setting consistent expectations so both your team and your loved ones know what to expect from you. 3. The 80/15/5 rule Former senior partners at EY gave me this framework early on: 80% of people will love you, 15% are undecided, and 5% just won't, no matter what you do or say. Focus on that 15% and try to win them over. Don't forget to nurture the 80%. But stop losing sleep over the 5%. It still affects me today. However, it's gotten better as I get older, perhaps because I still care but don't have as much time or energy to worry about what others think about me. 4. Read — it's a superpower Reading is the single most underrated key to success. I recommend " The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" or any book by John C. Maxwell. Like all of John Maxwell's books, I love this book because it's practical, timeless, and grows with you as your leadership evolves. One of the first lessons that stuck with me was, "Sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn," which reframes failure as learning. This mindset was a game changer when it came to venture capital and startups; where "losses" are inevitable, viewing them as lessons instead of failures has kept me resilient, curious, and always moving forward. Some of the most impactful laws for me include the Law of the Lid (your leadership ability can limit your organization's growth), the Law of Sacrifice (you have to give up to go up), and the Law of Connection (take time to understand personal motivations before pushing your team for more). 5. Be adaptable At EY, we had this theory called the chaos theory: in chaos, there is order. We were trained to see the chaos and live in it. That meant staying calm and level-headed, and learning how to pivot quickly. Over time, that mindset builds muscle memory. Startups operate the same way; they're unpredictable. Markets shift, but the best founders know how to adapt. Investors see it too. We're not looking for perfection; we're looking for people who learn, adapt, and pivot. Waiting for perfect conditions slows you down. The better aim is precision. The best leaders make smart, timely decisions with the data they have, and know they can adjust quickly. I keep in touch with partners from Big Four accounting firms. They all know we're in the early stages of an AI arms race that's already redefining how they work, who they hire, and how they make money. The firms won't say it outright (yet), but entry-level roles are quietly being replaced by AI. The demand is shifting toward tech-savvy talent — data scientists, AI engineers, and consultants who can manage bots as easily as clients. The firms that win won't just use AI; they'll have to build around it. The future of professional services isn't human vs. machine; it's human plus machine. As such, the Big Four are racing to figure out the formula and who will get there first.
India Gazette
3 days ago
- Business
- India Gazette
Tech-enabled background checks will minimise rising employment fraud: EY
New Delhi [India], May 30 (ANI): With the rising employment fraud across all sectors in India, Ernst & Young's (EY) study named 'The First Firewall: Background checks as India Inc's frontline defence' suggests an urgent need to have technology-driven background checks as critical for safeguarding hiring report sheds light on the fact that most of the employment frauds are being committed by experienced professionals. Statistically, 96 per cent in healthcare, 88 per cent in financial services, and 79 per cent in IT/ITeS, underscoring the scale and sophistication of the problem.'Employment fraud has been a longstanding menace in India. To tackle this, today, background checks have become a non-negotiable across sectors. As we rapidly adopt technology in the workplace, the risks associated with it are evolving equally fast,' said Arpinder Singh, Global Markets and India Leader, Forensic and Integrity Services, study shows that the healthcare sector saw 83 per cent of flagged candidates fail basic background checks, with 75 per cent submitting fake employment documents. In financial services, 84 per cent of discrepancies stemmed from candidate misinformation, including inflated salaries and unapproved degrees. In IT/ITeS, 45 per cent of flagged candidates were found to be moonlighting, often with parallel employment or active GST registrations.'Validating the licences of healthcare professionals is essential to reduce clinical errors. In financial services, ensuring employee integrity protects confidential data. In today's rapidly evolving IT industry, background verification is vital for building a reliable team. These practices help organizations thrive by upholding core values, maintaining ethical standards, and making informed hiring decisions,' said Amit Rahane, Partner, Forensic and Integrity Services to the report, manual hiring processes are no longer sufficient. With fake documents readily available online and deep fakes used in virtual interviews, traditional verification methods fall stresses that AI-powered and automated background checks are essential to detect document anomalies, validate credentials, and ensure candidate authenticity. (ANI)
Geek Wire
21-05-2025
- Business
- Geek Wire
Amazon shareholders reject oversight proposals as Andy Jassy disputes AI cutback claims
In-depth Amazon coverage from the tech giant's hometown, including e-commerce, AWS, Amazon Prime, Alexa, logistics, devices, and more. (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota) Amazon shareholders on Wednesday rejected all eight independent proposals at the company's annual meeting, including measures seeking greater scrutiny of its climate risks, AI practices, and warehouse working conditions. Final tallies won't be released until later in the week, but company executives said none of the shareholder proposals received the support needed to pass. All 12 board nominees were re-elected. Shareholders also approved Amazon's executive compensation plan in an advisory vote and approved the reappointment of Ernst & Young as the company's auditor. The meeting, held virtually, came as Amazon faced questions about its growing investment in artificial intelligence, the environmental impact of its data centers, and how its warehouse conditions align with its public commitments to worker safety and sustainability. Shareholder proposals, detailed in the company's proxy statement, included calls for expanded climate disclosures, a third-party audit of warehouse working conditions, stronger board oversight of AI-related human-rights risks, and a policy to ensure political neutrality in advertising. Proponents called these measures necessary to protect Amazon's reputation and long-term value. Each was opposed by the board and ultimately failed to gain majority support. The company typically releases the detailed results within a few days of the meeting via an SEC filing. Answering selected shareholder questions, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy defended the company's AI strategy, and pushed back on a question about cutbacks in its AI investments. 'We have no plans to reduce our AI investment. So that's not accurate,' Jassy said in response to a shareholder question citing reports that Amazon is pulling back on its data center expansion. Amazon has said the changes are about adjusting the timing and pace of its data center buildout to better match customer demand, not cutting back on overall investment.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
‘Doubles is absolute carnage': meet Henry Patten, GB's unsung Wimbledon champion
It's slightly unusual to hear Henry Patten – along with Harri Heliövaara, the reigning men's doubles champion at Wimbledon and the Australian Open – call tennis a 'fun hobby'. But then you spend time in his company and realise he is slightly unusual. Patten, 29, was not supposed to be a professional, never mind a grand slam winner. Though he played county level as a child, he enjoyed various sports as a teenager before a tennis scholarship to Culford School in Suffolk – 'I don't know how we weaselled that!' – inspired him to attend college in North Carolina, where he read economics. Advertisement Related: Emma Raducanu sweeps past Daria Kasatkina to claim another win on clay 'We'd have two hours' training in the afternoon, a foreign concept to me,' he says. 'That was where I learned how to be a professional without really understanding what was happening, because I was having a good time.' Patten, a late developer missed at every level, evidences a flawed system. Though he acknowledges that 'it's pretty tough to see a hundred 12-year-olds and say which'll be a champion', even when he excelled in the US no one paid attention. 'I came home and the first professional event, someone from the LTA came up and said: 'Who are you?' I didn't know how to take that.' So he agreed to join Ernst & Young as a technology risk consultant, but was saved by the pandemic, doing well enough in bubble events for his family to insist he pursued tennis seriously. 'Thank goodness they talked me around otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here. A friend works at EY and he's absolutely miserable, whereas any time I'm upset or struggling, I can play tennis. It completely engrosses you and takes your mind off whatever else is going on.' Advertisement Patten's calm sense of perspective is striking, but a debut grand slam final is of a palpably different order – especially for an unseeded, unknown Briton in SW19. 'The first time we played Wimbledon I was trying to act like I wasn't nervous at all, and we lost very quickly, so now I let the nerves be there,' he says. 'But this time I couldn't stop smiling, it's the coolest thing ever. Walking down the corridor, past the trophies and underneath the Kipling quote, it feels like the absolute pinnacle of anything.' Emerging to a crowd, though, is different – 'You want that moment to last for ever, don't really want to start playing tennis' – and as the contest intensified into an unfathomable epic, the atmosphere became equally feverish. 'The whole way we were clinging on desperately,' Patten tells me, 'so I didn't feel much pressure until the last point, and Harri hit a great first serve – I didn't even touch the ball.' After which, mayhem. 'What was amazing was I had everyone in my box,' Patten says, 'and they all had the same face on that I had on … the craziest, best feeling ever, a home crowd going completely ballistic, everyone's just nuts. To create those emotions in people, it's an absolute honour.' In Melbourne, six months later, it was Patten tasked with settling another classic: 'I felt a lot more pressure thinking blindly, 'Serve it out, just serve it out.' I went completely blank so Harri came and said, 'Your serve is great, serve here; I'm going to go here,' which usually the server would dictate. I served an ace and said, 'OK, now tell me how to serve on this one.' Advertisement Before teaming up with Finland's Heliövaara, Patten partnered fellow Briton Julian Cash, eventually realising that he had to be ruthless to progress. 'One of those difficult conversations you just have to have, and we had it. What's unusual is we're still friends and we've got seven Brits in the doubles top 50, which is unbelievable – it's a golden age.' Doubles, though, suffers from a chronic lack of funding, coverage and care, despite proof – exemplified by Patten's experiences – that people love it. 'It's a team sport, so you've got different tactics,' he explains when asked to pitch it. 'You see a lot more variation in the shots – singles is mainly baseline rallies, but doubles has net play with quick hands, it's absolute carnage. 'Singles, you have a pretty strong idea of who's going to win, whereas doubles, everything's out of the window … I know friends of years who split up and hate each other. Fundamentally, you're dealing with extremely competitive 30-year-old men who travel the world together – it's a recipe for disaster!' Patten also has a vision for change, citing padel as an example. 'There's always a good energy. Most sports, the spectacle is great but it's really about being with friends and having a nice time, so you could turn doubles into something different, with music and free crowd movement. Doubles has a great chance of becoming this unique, fun event … if the authorities let it.'
