The brokerage firm has a Buy call on two largecap insurance stocks of ICICI Group. The first is ICICI Prudential Life and the other is ICICI Lombard General Insurance. It expects ICICI Prudential to jump almost 22% in the next 12 months as Q4 FY25 performance came in line with expectations. Nuvama expects ICICI Lombard’s share price to rise more than 15% in another 12 months.

Nuvama on ICICI Prudential Life

Talking about ICICI Prudential Life, the brokerage firm upgraded the rating to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’. The rating upgrade was followed after ICICI Prudential’s group APE (annual premium equivalent) jumped 33.1% YoY in Q4 FY25 following which the brokerage still sees a further 22% upside in the stock. However, it has slashed the target price marginally to Rs 690 from Rs 720. The cut in the target price came as the company reported a decline of 7.8% year-on-year in retail APE due to which total APE fell 3.2%. However,

Also, the company’s product mix change supported the VNB (value of new business) margin, which came in steady at 22.7%. Consequently, VNB increased 2.4% YoY to Rs 800 crore, a bit lower than Nuvama’s estimate of 4.8%.

The company reported a net profit of Rs 385 crore in Q4 FY25, a whopping jump of 122% YoY, compared with Rs 174 crore reported in the same period a year ago. Its net premium income for Q4 FY5 increased 11% YoY to Rs 16,369 crore, as against Rs 14,788 crore reported in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal year. The company also announced a final dividend of Rs 0.85 per equity share.

Nuvama on ICICI Lombard General Insurance

The brokerage firm has retained its ‘Buy’ call on the general insurance company of ICICI Group. However, it chopped the target price of ICICI Lombard by 12.5% to Rs 2,100 from Rs 2,400 after delivering “a soft 10.2% YoY GWP as a result of a slowdown in new vehicle sales, and deferred accounting of long-term products.” Also, the company’s underwriting loss came in at Rs 2,100 crore. ICICI Lombard’s weak investment income led to an adjusted profit after tax (APAT) fall of 1.9% YoY and 29.7% sequentially to Rs 5,100 crore. Given a slowdown in new auto sales growth, Nuvama reduced FY26/27 estimates for APAT by 6.8%/6.7%, respectively.

The company’s net profit declined 1.9% year-on-year to Rs 509.6 crore in Q4 FY25, compared with Rs 520 crore posted in the correspondent period of the last fiscal. Its gross premium income for the last quarter of FY25 grew 10.2% YoY to Rs 6,903.9 crore, however, operating profit dropped 25.9% to Rs 415.9 crore.