Morgan Stanley hiked its target prices for HCLTech Ltd., Infosys Ltd., LTIMindtree Ltd., Tech Mahindra Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., and Wipro India Ltd., as the growth outlook appears better than earlier projections.
The brokerage upgraded Wipro India Ltd. to 'equal-weight', while it downgraded Tech Mahindra Ltd to 'underweight'.
Morgan Stanley has seen a slight improvement in revenue growth forecasts. Growth outlook is becoming slightly better than feared while guidance range remained tight. IT stocks have rallied since April lows, therefore an opportunity to shuffle portfolio has presented itself.
Management commentary and weak deal pipeline has affirmed weak discretionary spending, which is why the brokerage maintained muted revenue CAGR thesis. Hence, any rally indicates a good opportunity to trim these stocks, the brokerage said.
The prime reason behind slight improvement for Indian IT companies is that Morgan Stanley has upgraded US growth forecasts since April, when US President Donald Trump imposed heavy tariffs on trade partner countries, the brokerage said.
Despite pipelines for most companies remaining strong, the demand is skewed towards large vendor consolidation. Most companies will continue cost optimisation drive, Morgan Stanley said.
Similarly, CLSA has reiterated its optimism for Indian IT companies. The brokerage is expecting a V-shaped recovery for these companies. It sees a strong pickup in order bookings from the current quarter. A good deal pipeline commentary from the IT companies is on the card.
However, it did not change any stock rating or target price estimates for the company.
CLSA expects a bounce back in Wipro India Ltd.'s share price as the company is set to buyback shares. Infosys is also announcing a share buyback.
Indian IT companies have expressed a guarded optimism for demand despite no material improvement in discretionary demand. CLSA expects that the cost optimisation theme will continue.
Most IT stocks have declined in Thursday's session. Tech Mahindra Ltd., and LTMindtree Ltd. fell the most. Wipro India Ltd. is the only gainer in the NSE Nifty IT.
The index has declined 1.01% to 38,635.15. It was trading 0.90% down at 38,677.9 as of 10:00 a.m.
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