ITC’s shares rallied to 2% hitting a 52-week high of Rs 3,453.70 after it reported its Q4 FY24 results. The brokerage houses largely maintained their rating on the stock. The company’s net profit came in at Rs 5,120.55 crore, a fall of 4% on year compared to Rs 5,335.23 crore posted in Q4 of FY23. The FMCG major’s revenue from operations came in at Rs 19,446.49 crore, marginally lower than Rs 19,484.50 crore during the same period last year. Here are some brokerages’ views on the company post Q4 results:
Motilal Oswal
The brokerage house largely maintained its earnings per share estimates on ITC for FY25 and FY26. The resilient nature of the company’s core business, amid an uncertain industry environment, and its 3-4% dividend yield make ITC a good defensive bet in the ongoing volatile interest rate environment. The broking firm kept the “Buy” rating unchanged while maintaining the target price of Rs 515.
Prabhudas Lilladher
The demand scenario remains mixed with the mass segment under pressure across cigarettes and FMCG. The brokerage house Prabhudas Lilladher expects a 4% volume growth in cigarettes in FY25 and FY26. The company’s FMCG business will continue to expand margins by 80-100 basis points annually. Although the hotels segment has a high base, but strong demand will continue to drive growth. “We expect paper margins to improve after the second quarter, given a high base in Q1 and a tough operating environment. ITC’s agri business margins will expand in the second half of FY25 due to high leaf tobacco prices, said Elara Securities.
The broking firm largely retained earnings per share estimate of 7.3% over FY24-26. Elara raised the target price to Rs 491 from Rs 488, earlier, while maintaining an “Accumulate” rating on the stock. “We expect returns to be driven by cigarette volume numbers and budget outcome in July,” said Elara in its research report.