Stock Picks Today: Airtel, Nestle, ONGC, Nykaa, Marico, Pidilite, And More On Brokerages' Radar

Brokerages have identified opportunities across the telecom, FMCG, housing finance, oil and gas, e-commerce and real estate sectors, with fresh calls on Airtel, Nestle India, Marico, Nykaa, ONGC, PNB Housing Finance, Pidilite Industries, Godrej Properties, BSE and Dr. Agarwal's Health Care, while maintaining a constructive view on Indian equities and motor insurance segment.

Macquarie on ONGC

• Maintain Outperform with TP of Rs 290
• Q1FY27: Beat on crude tailwind; volumes slip
• Volume inflection deferred to FY28
• Key to watch - Volume ramp-up trajectory, capex phasing and dividend guidance.

Macquarie on Airtel

• Maintain Outperform with TP of Rs 2220
• Airtel delivered a strong June quarter
• Strong and steady compounding
• Subscriber growth adds has improved while ARPU was better than expected
• Further gains in EBITDA margin underscores the operating leverage to an improving revenue line

Citi on Airtel

• Maintain Buy with TP of Rs 2190
• Q1FY27: Strong Beat Driven by Robust Operating Metrics
• Net debt decline driven by contained capex and strong FCF generation
• See robust growth outlook with high visibility, favourable industry outlook, solid FCF and deleveraging
• Strong execution driving market share gains,
• Capital allocation concerns are overdone.

Jefferies on Airtel

• Maintain Buy; Hike TP to Rs 2360 from Rs 2350
• Steady Growth Delivery | Strong Outlook
• Higher than expected mobile subscribers and ARPU
• Strong growth in Airtel business & Africa and healthy FCF generation were key positive surprises
• Expect 14%/28% CAGRs in EBITDA/EPS over FY27-29.

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MS on Nestle

• Maintain Equal-weight with TP of Rs 1538
• Management was optimistic about the growth opportunity
• Focus: penetration-led volume growth, innovation, premiumization, distribution, and brand investments
• Macro headwinds could moderate consumption in the near term, but management is confident about being able to navigate this
• Nestle will look to maintain margins – the brand investments will be funded out of cost savings and efficiencies
• Recent strong performance was led by the strong brands, marketing investments, growth in new channels, and good execution
• Management focused on the opportunity, but did not provide any targets or guidance
• Current valuation factors in the strong recent growth trends

Macquarie on Nestle

• Maintain Neutral with TP of Rs 1575
• Confident on opportunity; limited on specifics
• Focus on penetration/premiumisation
• Concerns about industry growth
• Large room for expanding reach
• Sees near-term concerns on food industry growth
• But believes there is limited impact to its medium/ long-term growth outlook given the large room for penetration gains. 

Jefferies on Nestle

• Maintain Hold with TP of Rs 1425
• Positive Long-Term Outlook Despite Near-Term Challenges
• In his first address, Manish Tiwary (MD) laid out a clear, execution led growth agenda
• Discussion centred on penetration-driven volume growth & premiumisation
• There is significant runway through distribution expansion, brand investments & digital-led execution
• Cost efficiencies are funding higher A&P while preserving profitability
• This reinforces confidence in the ability to sustain long term growth
• Short-term concerns remain, including inflation & geopolitical issues.

Jefferies on Marico

• Maintain Buy; Hike TP to Rs 1000 from Rs 960
• Boringly Consistent
• Marico continues to deliver best-in-class growth in revs & profitability
• This consistency – in sharp contrast to most peers – makes it special
• Earnings growth in Q1 accelerated to a multi-qtr high
• Remains confident with a clear goal of reducing the commodity-linked portion of the portfolio in favour of premium offerings
• The focus is also on fewer, bigger bets

Jefferies on Pidilite

• Maintain Hold with TP of Rs 1610
• Q1 Beat; Margins do the Heavy-Lifting
• Hiked prices across categories, although no material volume pushback
• Volume growth was healthy at +11% YoY, in tandem with FY26
• C&B segment posted healthy volume growth at 12%, while B2B segment was at 7%.

Macquarie on Pidilite

• Maintain Underperform with TP of Rs 1350
• Gross margin-led Q1 beat
• Liked the continued strength in the consumer bazaar volume growth
• Did not like the continued decline in export business-to-business segment performance
• Concerned about the inability to extrapolate the low-cost inventory led gross margin beat seen in Q1. 

MS on PNB Housing

• Maintain Overweight with TP of Rs 1405
• Q1: PAT in line; stronger loan growth; weaker NIM
• Underlying retail disbursement growth was well above estimate
• Ex accounting change, it could have added 2 ppt to loan growth
• NII and NIM missed, due to higher leverage and lower investment yield. 

Macquarie on Nykaa

• Maintain Underperform with TP of Rs 220
• Q1 EBITDA marginally ahead of Street
• Disclosure levels lowered
• Continued healthy gross margin performance in beauty on improving mix
• Switch in disclosures for own beauty brands from GMV to net sales value (NSV), makes it difficult to analyse growth performance of own brands.

Jefferies on Nykaa

• Maintain Buy; Hike TP to Rs 400 from Rs 350
• A Beautiful Quarter
• Nykaa had a strong beat across metrics
• Beauty gained from continued user growth, along with premiumisation and increased AOV
• Fashion posted >50% growth with EBITDA break-even
• House of brands continue to scale up while quick delivery widens its reach
• Valuation remains punchy but supported by strong growth and margin expansion.

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MS on Godrej Properties

• Maintain Overweight with TP of Rs 2500
• Strong Revenue and Cash Flow Visibility over F27–28.

Jefferies on BSE

• Maintain Hold; Hike TP to Rs 3520 from Rs 3440
• Jun'26 qtr. EBITDA ex. SGF was in line
• Transaction charges grew 1% QoQ as options ADTO growth slowed with VIX falling in May/Jun'26
• Expect ADTO growth to slow further in Q2 with VIX remaining lower, & expiry day market share for BSE & NSE being similar
• Further, risks may emerge for weekly option expiries from CAS
• Management transition is a key monitorable
• Trades at 48x FY27e EPS which ignores single product reliance 

MS on Dr Agarwal's Health

• Maintain Overweight; Hike TP to Rs 576 from Rs 555
• Impressive Quarter; Same Store Sales Growth Improves
• Q1 growth was strong: revenue +26% YoY and same store sales + 16%
• Management expects the latter to normalize over time
• See premiumization-led growth, a large untapped market opportunity, robust expansion visibility, and improving ROCE
• Valuation is still attractive. 

Jefferies on Dr Agarwal's Health

• Upgrade to Buy from Hold; Hike TP to Rs 600 from Rs 510
• Strong execution continues
• Strong performance in Jun-Q
• Expansion continues across all regions
• See mid-teens volume growth as well as premiumization
• SSSG growth continues to be robust
• Upgrade on account of faster ramp-up of new facilities driven by strong volume-led growth.

Jefferies on Motor Insurance

• Multiple Positives For Motor Insurance From SC Verdict
• This will lead to higher investment leverage and float income driving 2-5% higher PAT for Go Digit/ICICI Lombard
• Go Digit being a larger beneficiary
• SC's measures for better compliance (56% vehicles uninsured) could drive a step jump in GWP growth
• Third Party price hike still remains on the table

MS India Strategy - Ridham Desai

• India has the ingredients to sustain its recent outperformance with improving growth and benign valuations
• Albeit sustaining it may still depend on what happens elsewhere in the world
• The principal catalyst is how the market gauges the growth gap between India and the world
• That view may shift if global sentiment turns cautious on AI capex and/or India's growth accelerates
• The current quarterly earnings season is underscoring the latter, the volatility in global AI trade is hinting at the former
• Expect high frequency indicators to continue to exhibit positive momentum
• India is amid far-reaching reforms that could lift growth rates in the coming quarters as well as make capital flows easier
• A rising wave of IPOs could lend further support until it turns excessive – a point we see as several months off
• Favour Domestic Cyclicals over Defensives and externally facing sectors
• Overweight Financials, Consumer Discretionary and Industrials
• Underweight Energy, Materials, Utilities and Healthcare
• IT services may prove the dark horse as the world turns to these firms to build AI applications and solutions
• India's chief risks are largely external, including geopolitical tensions and a slowing global economy
• Domestically, we worry about weak farm productivity, capacity bottlenecks in the judiciary, and embodied AI weighing on labour markets. 

HSBC India Strategy - Prerna Garg

• India offers diversification and stability
• AI rotation outflows largely done
• With 80%+ of GEM funds underweight India, a move back to neutral could bring $25bn of inflows
• High-frequency indicators remain constructive; Q1FY27 results have generally come in better than expected
• Favour quality growth names in domestically driven sectors – financials, autos, retail, and hospitals
• Private banks and real estate look relatively attractive after their underperformance, while diversified NBFCs stand out
• Like selected industrials benefiting from government policy support
• Within consumption, prefer consumer discretionary over staples
• Key Stock Ideas – ICICI Bank, Cholamandalam, Titan, M&M, Phoenix Mills, Fortis Healthcare, Cummins India, Syrma SGS, Adani Ports and Hindalco.

 
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