After falling for two consecutive trading sessions, the Infosys stock on Tuesday ended in green. The stock hit its intra-day high of Rs 897, before closing 0.42% higher at Rs 877.15. In the current year, the stock has been a big under-performer having lost over 13% at a time when the Sensex has gained 17.52%. After losing close to Rs 34,000 crore in market cap on Friday it regained approximately Rs 840.3 crore worth market cap on Tuesday. Three months’ average volume on BSE and NSE has been approximately 60.69 lakhs, but on Tuesday 2.65 crore shares of Infosys were traded. “Following the turn of events over last week the fall in Infosys’ valuations may be stemmed amid the buyback.
That said, return of business stability may be prolonged till Infosys is settled on new CEO search and peace between the current board and Narayana Murthy. Our price target of Rs 1,030 implies a 17% upside, driving our Buy rating,” said Motilal Oswal in a report. Infosys on August 19 announced Rs 13,000 crore share buyback, a day after Vishal Sikka resigned.
The company would buy back up to 11,30,43,478 crore shares aggregating up to 4.92% of the paid-up equity capital via tender route at a price of Rs 1,150, Infosys said in a BSE filing. Motilal Oswal added that near term valuation protection may come from the proposed buyback. Of the 51 brokers tracking the Infosys stock on Bloomberg, 41.2 % recommended a ‘buy’ rating, 35.3 % asked its investors to ‘sell’ the stock and 23.5 % have recommended a ‘hold’ rating.