Brokerage Views: Citi On ICICI Bank, Nuvama On HUL And More

Citi Research has shared its outlook on ICICI Bank Ltd. after meeting with the management. Meanwhile, Nuvama Research retained its rating on Hindustan Unilever Ltd.

NDTV Profit tracks what the brokerages are putting out on stocks and sectors. Here are all the top calls from analysts that you need to know about on Thursday.

Citi On ICICI Bank

Retains 'buy' rating with a target price of Rs 1,350 apiece, implying a potential upside of 18% from the previous close.
Management meet reaffirms stance on return-on-asset stability.
Expects range-bound net-interest margin until rate cut action.
The NIMs are better than envisaged.
Pricing to improve in some products.
Growth momentum to sustain, expects 16% growth in FY24–26.
Credit costs to normalise gradually in the 0.5–0.7% range.

Motilal Oswal On Indian PSUs

Preferred PSUs: SBI, Coal India, GAIL, HPCL, Bank of Baroda.
PSU index up 113% since December 2022.
Strong business narratives, growing order book driving a rerating.
PSU loss pools have reduced consistently over the last five years.
Expect profitability of the PSUs to improve.
Expects recovery in PSUs' contribution to earnings.

Nuvama On Hindustan Unilever

Retains 'buy' rating with a target price of Rs 2,885 apiece, implying a potential upside of 17%.
FY25 is likely to mark a gradual recovery for HUL.
Q1 FY25 is likely to be muted with negative pricing of 2%.
Harsh summer impacting volumes of hot beverages in Q1 FY25.
Expects pricing growth to come back in H2 FY25.
Expects rural volume growth to likely recover on the back of potentially good rainfall in H2 FY25.
HUL has ample room to premiumise and boost per-capita consumption.

Macquarie On Indian Financials

Private sector banks are at attractive valuations and are expected to report 16–18% return on equity over the next couple of years.
Recommends staying away from PSU banks, insurance, and fintechs owing to regulations, declining fundamentals, and unfavourable risk-reward.
Top picks in banks include Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank.
Top picks in non-bank financial companies include Shriram Housing Finance and LIC Housing Finance.
Upgrades rating from 'neutral' to 'outperform' for City Union Bank Ltd and Kotak Mahindra Bank. The reason being that valuations are cheap and risk-reward is favourable.
Downgrades rating to 'underperform' from 'neutral' for State Bank of India, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance and Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services on its outlook for lower growth, falling ROEs, and a delayed rate cut cycle.
Upgrades SBI Life to 'outperform' from 'neutral' as it is affected less by the IRDAI regulations. But remains 'cautious overall' on the insurance space.

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