ITC trades in the green as brokerages raise target on FMCG major

ITC share price gained marginally by nearly half a per cent in early trade on Wednesday, rising to Rs 327.50 on BSE. The uptrend in ITC stock price came as global brokerage CLSA raised the target price on FMCG–cigarettes–hotels major by Rs 25 per share or 7.5 per cent.

Domestic brokerage Motilal Oswal has also picked ITC among its top bets in the consumer space. It has a buy rating on ITC with target price set at Rs 370, suggesting a 14 percent upside.

"A revival in cigarette demand, improvement in the hotels business coupled with lower input cost pressures than peers and attractive valuations make ITC a top pick from a one-year perspective," it said in a research report.

Motilal Oswal expects a 13 percent volume growth in cigarettes, and a three year average of around 3 percent. It exgross margin expansion of 230 basis points quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) on better cigarette mix and reduction in lag from Hotels.

ITC is set to declare its July-September quarter results on October 20.

"...a Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company has been convened for Thursday, 20th October, 2022, inter alia, to consider and approve the Unaudited Standalone and  Consolidated Financial Results of the Company...," it said in an exchange filing.

ITC had reported a profit of Rs 4,169 crore for the April-June quarter, rising 38.3 percent from Rs 3,013.5 crore it had reported in Q1FY22. ITC revenues came in at Rs 17,289.5, registering a jump of 41.5 percent. The FMCG major had reported a revenue of Rs 12,217.1 crore in the same period a year ago. The margin for the first quarter came in at 32.7 percent.

So far this year, ITC stock price has returned nearly 50 per cent in gains to investors. From Rs 219 apiece, the stock has surged to more than Rs 300 in ten months. 

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