ICICI Bank share price hits new lifetime high; stock up 14.5% in 1 month – brokerages recommend Buy, check price target

ICICI Bank share price touched a new lifetime high of Rs 886 per share on the BSE and NSE during Thursday’s trading session on positive outlook. The stock has gained almost 14.5 per cent in the last one month and is trading flat with positive bias, up 0.3 per cent during today’s trade. 

The gaining momentum is witnessed since the strong April-June quarter earnings for the financial year 2022-23 (Q1FY23). The private lender registered a growth of almost 50 per cent in net profit to Rs 6,904.94 crore in Q1FY23 as compared to Rs 4,616.02 crore in a year ago quarter. 

Meanwhile, the net interest income (NII) came at Rs 13,210.02 crore, up by around 21 per cent from Rs 10,935.76 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. Similarly, asset quality of the bank also improved sequentially during the June-end quarter.  

According to Motilal Oswal, the bank is seeing a strong recovery in business trends across key segments such as Retail, SME, and Business Banking. Asset quality trends remain steady, while PCR remains one of the best in the industry around 80 per cent. 

Ahead of this new growth cycle, the bank is already positioned well with superior margins, strong RoE/asset quality and robust capitalisation levels, the brokerage said, adding that the stock return will be a function of earnings growth and re-rating over the coming years. 

Stating that ICICI Bank has all the ingredients in place to take over the pole position in the Indian Banking space, Motilal estimate the bank to deliver a FY24 RoA/RoE of 2.1%/17.1% and reiterate Buy rating with a target of Rs 1,050 per share (19% upside) as it remains as top pick in the sector. 

Similarly, Nirmal Bang, another brokerage firm, also remained positive on the bank given its growth outlook and earnings trajectory. It maintained a Buy rating on ICICI Bank with a target price of Rs 1,079 per share (22% upside).  

The management sounded confident about credit demand but with a cautious undertone given the inflationary environment and global disturbances, Nirmal Bang also said in its report.