Three Brokerages, One Buy Call: ICICI Bank Is The Street's Unanimous Pick

Amid a Street split on where the Sensex heads next — Morgan Stanley betting on a cyclical turnaround, HSBC counting on returning foreign flows, and BofA Securities flagging an 8% downside risk — one stock has managed to unite all three houses: ICICI Bank is the sole name to appear as a top pick across Morgan Stanley, HSBC and BofA's latest India strategy notes.

HSBC has gone furthest, naming ICICI Bank the lead idea among its 10 stock picks, with a target price of Rs 1,700, implying 18.4% upside from a current price of Rs 1,435. "We prefer ICICIBC for (i) its earnings consistency on the back of strong loan growth, stable NIM and pristine asset quality; (ii) its strong liability franchise; (iii) better management of margins and operating parameters than peers; (iv) clarity on management continuity for now," analyst Abhishek Murarka wrote. The brokerage expects EPS to grow at a CAGR of c15% over FY26-28e, calling the stock's valuation at 1.9x FY28e book value "attractive."

Morgan Stanley carries ICICI Bank on its Focus List within an overweight call on Financials (+200bps). Strategist Nayant Parekh holds the stock personally, per the report's disclosures. The stock's 12-month performance has been roughly flat — down 3% in absolute terms, 0% relative to MSCI India — even as Morgan Stanley's broader thesis rests on financials benefiting from a "strong earnings cycle for banks" as net interest margins trough.

BofA Securities lists ICICI Bank among its 18 Key Buy names, projecting an EPS CAGR of 11% through FY28, an ROE of 16% for both FY27 and FY28, and a book-value CAGR of 7%, with the stock trading at an FY27E P/E of 18x — among the more conservative growth estimates in BofA's Buy list, but one it still backs given the "favorable liquidity environment" it sees across banking.

There are only a handful of stocks that have a bullish call from at least two of the three global brokerages
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Bajaj Finance: Morgan Stanley, BofA converge on NBFC growth

Bajaj Finance is the second name to draw conviction from two brokerages at once. Morgan Stanley carries it on its Focus List within the same overweight Financials call as ICICI Bank, with the stock up 30% over 12 months and 34% on a relative basis to MSCI India — among the strongest performers on its list. BofA lists Bajaj Finance among its Key Buys too, projecting an EPS CAGR of 27% through FY28 and an ROE of 20-21%, trading at an FY27E P/E of 26x. BofA's broader NBFC thesis backs the read-through: "We believe MSBs and NBFCs are better positioned to sustain robust growth and stable NIMs" than the Big 4 private banks, the brokerage said, citing a "favorable liquidity environment" and healthy asset quality.

Larsen & Toubro: Capex-cycle consensus trade

L&T is the clearest overlap on the industrials side, appearing on both Morgan Stanley's Focus List and BofA's Key Buy list. Morgan Stanley has it overweight within Industrials (+300bps), with the stock up 8% over 12 months and 12% relative to MSCI India. BofA projects an EPS CAGR of 24% through FY28 and an ROE of 18-19%, at an FY27E P/E of 26x. The thesis converges on capex: Morgan Stanley's broader industrials call cites "a pickup in private capex" across energy, mining, defence, fertilisers, semiconductors and data centres as "the likely new capex drivers for India," a reform-cycle narrative BofA echoes in its own overweight stance on capex-linked sectors.

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Titan Company: Jewellery's growth-visibility bet

Titan draws Buy calls from HSBC and BofA, both leaning on the same structural argument: unorganised-to-organised market-share shift in India's jewellery trade. HSBC has a target price of Rs 5,290, implying 8.5% upside, and flags the company's "target of a c20% CAGR for the key Jewellery business" as the core reason "regulatory headwinds are fading." BofA's Key Buy list pegs Titan's EPS CAGR at 25% through FY28, though at a rich FY27E P/E of 70x — among the most expensive multiples on BofA's Buy list, reflecting what HSBC calls Titan's status as "one of the few consumer companies with growth visibility."

Hindalco: Aluminium's tight-supply story

Hindalco is the second metals overlap, backed by both HSBC and BofA on a near-identical aluminium thesis. HSBC's target price of Rs 1,430 implies 46.7% upside, with analyst Pinakin Parekh arguing "the worst of the pressure (scrap spreads, tariffs, etc) is likely behind us" for Novelis, Hindalco's US subsidiary. BofA's Key Buy list shows an EPS CAGR of 30% through FY28 at a modest FY27E P/E of just 9x — among the cheapest multiples in BofA's entire Buy basket, underscoring both brokerages' view that the stock's recent correction has been driven more by "USD/Inflation" concerns than any deterioration in underlying aluminium fundamentals.

Lenskart Solutions: Growth over value

Lenskart rounds out the overlap list, appearing on both Morgan Stanley's Focus List (within an overweight Consumer Discretionary call) and BofA's Key Buy list. BofA projects the steepest EPS CAGR of any stock discussed here at 51% through FY28, against an FY27E P/E of 121x — a valuation that only makes sense, BofA's framework suggests, for investors willing to "chase growth" rather than value. Morgan Stanley's Focus List entry shows a 3-month average daily traded volume of $19 million, still thin relative to peers, but the stock's inclusion alongside established names like ICICI Bank and L&T signals both brokerages' conviction in India's specialty-retail growth runway.

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