Stock Picks Today: Escorts Kubota, Marico, IndusInd Bank, Aurobindo Pharma On Brokerages' Radar

Escorts Kubota Ltd., Sona BLW Precision Forgings Ltd., LIC Housing Finance Ltd., Marico Ltd., Shree Cement Ltd., IndusInd Bank Ltd., Aurobindo Pharma Ltd., Aditya Birla Capital Ltd., Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd., Bajaj Finance Ltd., and TBO Tek Ltd. are among the companies garnering brokerage commentary today.

Analysts have shared their insights and, in several cases, revised their target prices based on their updated fundamental outlooks for these firms, broadly based on the first quarter financials that the players have put out. Here are the key analyst calls to watch out for today:

Macquarie

• Maintained Outperform; target price of Rs 3634.

• Modest Ebitda beat.

• New product launch to aid market share gains.

• Export momentum remains strong, led by supplies to its parent.

• Believe Escorts will gain market share in H2 led by new model launch and a favourable base.

• Medium term, export growth bodes well for earnings.

CLSA

• Maintained Outperform; hiked target price to Rs 4000 from Rs 3860.

• Margin expansion drives beat.

• Launches and lowering regional divergence to drive up market share.

• Expect Ebitda margin to remain in the range of 12% to 13% over FY26-FY27.

CLSA

• Maintained Outperform; cut target price to Rs 566 from Rs 582.

• Tough quarter as expected.

• Most of the headwinds would be limited to this quarter and improve gradually.

Jefferies

• Maintained Buy; cut target price to Rs 515 from Rs 565.

• Weak Earnings Visibility but Good Capabilities.

• Volume decline at a key OEM, rare earth magnet constraints, and tariff-led slowdown impacted Q1.

• Near-term earnings visibility is weak.

• Entry into China, full benefit of railway business acquisition, and alternate motor design to address rare earth constraints provide some cushion.

• Cut FY26-28E EPS by 13-19%; keep it low in pecking order.

Jefferies

• Maintained Hold; cut target price to Rs 635 from Rs 650.

• Q1 Results Miss.

• See NIM Pressure Ahead, But Valuations Offer Support.

• See muted EPS CAGR and 12-13% ROE over FY25-28.

Goldman Sachs

• Maintained Buy; hiked target price to Rs 800 from Rs 780.

• Strong broad-based volume growth acceleration to 9%, highest among FMCG peers.

• VAHO turnaround a key positive.

• New businesses surpassed growth metric expectations, company set aggressive targets for FY28 growth and profitability.

• Unprecedented inflation in copra pushes out margin recovery to FY27.

Morgan Stanley

• Maintained Equal-weight; target price of Rs 674.

• Q1: Margin miss.

• Short-term margin hurdles likely but growth strategy intact.

• Parachute to see full effect of price increase in Q2.

• H2 pricing growth to come down from peak of Q2.

Jefferies

• Maintained Buy; hiked target price to Rs 850 from Rs 800.

• Industry Leading Volume Growth.

• Impact of high-cost inflation in inputs led to sharp margin contraction.

• Management positive on demand outlook and highlighted preference for growth over margins.

• See no risk to volumes contracting.

• Management confidence also appeared high on VAHO.

• Digital & foods portfolio scaled up well and should continue.

Jefferies

• Maintained Buy; hiked target price to Rs 35150 from Rs 34000.

• Slight miss on Q1 Ebitda on weaker volumes.

• Unit EBITDA came in ahead on stronger realisations.

• Continues to focus on profitability over pushing volumes.

Jefferies

• Maintained Buy; target price of Rs 920.

• Rajiv Anand to Take Charge as CEO.

• See this as a key positive for IndusInd.

• Reorganization of top management team may be the key initial steps.

• Will watch out for joiners from Axis/other banks.

• Improved fee/asset and operating efficiency, besides credibility, will be key expectations.

Macquarie

• Maintained Underperform; target price of Rs 1010.

• Q1FY26 all-round miss.

• Revenue miss driven by lower-than-expected revenue for the US and API businesses.

• Ebitda miss driven by the revenue miss and lower-than-expected gross margin.

• PAT miss was driven by the EBITDA miss and higher-than-expected tax expense.

Macquarie

• Maintained Outperform; target price of Rs 335.

• On a strong footing.

• NBFC: PAT in line; ABHFL: Operating leverage drove ROA expansion.

• Credit costs stable. Stress increases in unsecured SME space.

• ABSLI: positive surprise on margins.

Macquarie

• Maintained Neutral; target price of Rs 255.

• Q1 miss on weaker decorative performance.

• Like continued industry-leading performance in automotive coatings and strong growth in performance coatings.

• Margin weakness in Q1 makes us concerned about EBITDA margin target for FY26.

Morgan Stanley

• Maintained Overweight; target price of Rs 1050.

• Takeaways from Non-Deal Roadshow.

• Reiterated growth corridor of 24-25% and cited it would provide a further update following Q2 results.

• See idiosyncratic growth drivers like gold loans, consumer B2B, and unsecured B2C.

• Growing its gold loans business at a strong pace and expects to close FY26 with an AUM of $2bn.

• Expects to deliver profitability in-line with top players in the industry.

• Quite comfortable to bring down the AUM growth to 15% by the end of this year to improve the overall health of unsecured MSME portfolio.

Jefferies

• Maintained Buy; hiked target price to Rs 1625 from Rs 1400.

• Turbulent Q1; better times ahead.

• Quarter impacted by a number of geopolitical events impacting regional travel demand.

• Margins impacted by negative operating leverage & front-loading of costs related to market expansion.

• Management called out for business recovery in Q2 & also guided on margins recovering on a YoY basis from Q4FY26.