The Asian Paints shares surged as much as 4% to an intra-day high of Rs 2,778.80 on the NSE after it reported its quarterly results for the fourth quarter of FY26. The brokerage houses gave a bullish call on the stock post its results, which also helped the stock to move up. The share of Asian Paints was one of the top five gainers in the Nifty 50, but soon fell as market sentiment weakened.
Nomura on Asian Paints
The international brokerage house, Nomura, has raised the target price on Asian Paints to Rs 3,600 from Rs 3,250, implying an upside of 35%, while maintaining its ‘Buy’ rating.
“We see a high probability of crude prices being lower in the next six months vs current levels, which should be supportive for operating margin,” said Nomura.
Despite cumulative price hikes of 13.5% YTD (10.5% in April and May +3% announced to dealers today), Asian Paints maintained volume guidance of 8-10%, indicating that it expects the demand environment to be strong.
“We have a non-consensus Buy on Asian Paints, as we believe peak competition is behind us and disruption was far and few despite the large investments from new entrants, indicating a strong moat for the company,” said Nomura.
Nuvama on Asian Paints
Nuvama Institutional Equities, another international brokerage house, also raised the price target to Rs 3,470 from Rs 3,390. The new price target looks at an upside of 29% from the current market price.
Recent price hikes would mitigate ongoing inflation and Asian Paints took further price hikes of 2–4%. Gross margin was 44.8% (up 87 basis points YoY, multi-quarter high), and EBITDA margin was 19.3% (+214 bps YoY).
Volume-value gap narrowed to 2% in Q4 (average 5%). Despite the ongoing West Asia conflict, EBITDA margin guidance remained at 18–20%. “For FY27, we expect value to grow ahead of volume growth,” said Nuvama.
JM Financial on Asian Paints
JM Financial raised the target price to Rs 2,815 from Rs 2,290, looking at an upside of 5.4% from the current market price. The brokerage has an ‘Add’ rating from a ‘Reduce’ rating.
The company’s management commentary on demand outlook was quite promising, said the brokerage. The management said that the decorative segment volume was stable in April and May despite the price hike, and the company targets 8–10% volume growth in FY27.
“On profitability, calibrated price hikes (prices hiked by 10.4% so far, another 2–4% announced w.e.f. June against impact of 20%), premiumisation (mix impact likely to be lower at 3–4% versus earlier guidance of 5%), backward integration, and cost efficiencies should help maintain EBITDA margin in the guided range of 18–20%,” said JM Financial. This is a positive surprise given that the margin shrank sharply in previous inflation cycles.
Asian Paints’ share price performance
The share price of Asian Paints has risen 3% in the last five trading sessions. The stock has risen almost 12% in the past one month. However, it has fallen nearly 5% in the last six months. Asian Paints’ stock price has given a return of 21% over the previous one year.
Asian Paints Q4FY26
The company reported a 69.3% year-on-year jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,172.1 crore for the fourth quarter of FY26.
Its consolidated net sales advanced 10.8% YoY to Rs 9,228.5 crore, while profit before exceptional items and tax rose 33.9% to Rs 1,614.1 crore.
Also, Asian Paints announced a final dividend of Rs 23 per share, taking the total dividend for the financial year 2025-26 to Rs 27.50 per share, including the interim dividend paid earlier.