A day after joining the elite club of companies with market valuation of rupees five lakh crore, ITC on Friday became the seventh largest firm by market capitalisation, surpassing that of HDFC Ltd.
With investors continued to bet on ITC’s robust performance from across segments including paper, FMCG, and hotels, the stock has hit yet another record of Rs 405.70 on Friday, registering a 55 percent gains over the last one year. That compares with a marginal rise of 1.2 percent clocked by benchmark Nifty50 during the same period.
ITC, the sixth most weighted stock on Nifty50, after Reliance Industries, HDFC twins, ICICI Bank and Infosys has emerged as the best performer on Nifty50 so far this year. The cigarette major, which has been single handedly holding up the index by contributing nearly a third to the Nifty50 movement has gained as much as 22 percent between January and now.
Moreover, analysts have turned more bullish on the stock with nearly 95 percent of them suggesting a “Buy” against 77 percent buy recommendation a year ago. While the foreign brokerage Nomura expects the stock to hit Rs 455, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies have a 12-month target price of Rs 450 per share. CLSA, which raised its target price on ITC opined better capital allocation and higher margin trajectory for FMCG business and potential value unlocking is something to watch out going forward. The foreign brokerage also increased earnings estimate by 2 percent to 4 percent for FY24-25.
According to Bloomberg data, Analysts now peg an earnings per share (EPS) of Rs 16.7 for FY24 against Rs 13.8 expected a year ago.
Further, GQG Partners, which recently invested in battered Adani shares also upped stake in the company. As of March ending, the holding of GQG Partners Emerging Markets Equity Fund stood at 1.44 percent against December holding of 1.29 percent, stock exchange data showed. The overall foreign portfolio investors (FPI) holding increased 0.4 percentage points (ppt) to 14.2 percent during the quarter.
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