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Analysts see up to 43% upside in ICICI Securities after the company posted a 111% rise in consolidated profit at Rs 329 crore due to growth in revenue and improvement in margins. Consolidated revenue witnessed a rise of 53% YoY to Rs 739 crore. The robust performance of equities, distribution business, private wealth management and investment banking aided the financial result.

Brokerage Motilal Oswal maintained “Buy’ on ICICI Securities with a price target of Rs 650. “Fourth quarter of FY21 was another robust quarter in an overall strong year for ICICI Securities. Changes in the company’s product and sourcing strategy have yielded results over the past year. The ‘NEO’ plan has helped counter competition from discount brokers as well as some traditional brokers who offer discount plans. We are now seeing the digital sourcing model gain strong traction in terms of customer acquisition,” Motilal Oswal said. The target price set by the brokerage firm indicates an upside of 43% from the current market price of Rs 454.

Client acquisition

On the other hand, IIFL Securities added that ICICI Securities witnessed its highest-ever client acquisition in Q4. The figure stood at around 3,54,000 accounts, driven in large part by the scale-up in digital sourcing.

“ICICI Securities lost some market share due to the impact of the margin norms. However, it has undertaken certain new initiatives to begin to claw this back over the next few quarters. The client acquisition is expected to remain strong going forward, aided by ICICI Securities’ diversified sourcing and product offerings,” IIFL Securities said while setting a target price of Rs 580.

Global financial services firm CLSA has set a target price of Rs 575 for the broking firm. “We retain ‘Buy’ rating but lift target price from Rs 540 to Rs 575 as its current valuation looks reasonable and its 65% dividend pay-out implies an over 5% dividend yield,” CLSA said.