Shares of ITC hit a fresh 52 week high amid market rally today. ITC stock touched an intraday high of Rs 294.45 against the previous close of Rs 291.80 on BSE. ITC stock was trading higher than 5-day, 20-day, 50-day, 100-day and 200-day moving averages. It closed 0.39 per cent higher at Rs 292.95 on BSE.
Shares of ITC have gained 45 per cent in a year and risen 34.4 per cent since the beginning of this year. In a month, the stock has gained 9.23 per cent.
Total 4.35 lakh shares of the firm changed hand amounting to a turnover of Rs 14.19 crore on BSE. Market cap of the firm rose to Rs 3.61 lakh crore.
The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 294.45 on July 8, 2022 and a 52-week low of Rs 200.85 on July 9, 2021.
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Centrum Broking has assigned a buy call on ITC stock with a target price of Rs 351. Time period for the call is one year.
Tirthankar Das, Head of Technical Research, Ashika Group said, “FMCG sector continues with its outperformance as the NSE FMCG index continues to form higher peak and higher trough in all time frame and in that space. ITC remains a clear outperformer. Recently prices have registered a breakout of the 1.5-month-old congestion area thus offering fresh entry opportunity. However immediate resistance from the stock arises from the two-year old supply line adjoining the highs of June’20 (209), Feb’21(239) and Oct’21 (262) against which the elevated resistance is placed at 296-300. The said level further coincides with the projected 161.8% retracement of the last visible correction (Oct’21-Feb’22), while on the oscillator front, presence of Class B divergence calls for the first signs of price exhaustion. Hence for the trend follower, price sustenance above Rs 300 would continue to maintain positive biasness while for medium term investors a corrective dip towards Rs 275- Rs 280 should be used as ideal buying opportunity to ride the next leg of up move towards Rs 330- Rs 335.”
Manoj Dalmia, founder and director, Proficient Equities Private Limited said,”ITC has broken a major resistance area, as well as the crude and palm oil prices, fell down. Palm oil prices are currently trading near their six-month low. Sharp fall in prices of crude palm oil is good for domestic FMCG manufacturers as it is a critical raw material. The stock can be accumulated at dips for a target of Rs 311 in the near term.”
Ravi Singh, vice President and head of Research, Share India said, “ITC has shown robust performance so far in FY22 on strong recovery in hotels and cigarettes along with optimization of costs. Its stock is showing strength on its daily and intraday chart supported with robust volumes. All momentum indicators are directing towards a good rally in future. It holds strong to touch the levels of Rs 325 in the near term.”
On June 29, 2022, Motilal Oswal gave a target price of Rs 335, a 22 per cent upside to the ITC stock price at that time.
The brokerage attributed the likely upside for the stock to a stable tax environment for cigarettes in the recent years, which has allowed ITC to calibrate price increases to avoid a disruption in demand.
“We expect this trend to continue and this should result in improved cigarette volumes and earnings visibility over the medium term. The breadth of ITC’s FMCG product portfolio gives it an advantage in a rapidly changing demand environment. Its leadership position in some categories gives it pricing power to offset incremental input cost pressures in other categories, where pricing power is not as strong,” Motilal Oswal said.
In Q4 of the previous fiscal, the FMCG-cigarette-to-hotel major logged a year-on-year consolidated net profit of Rs 4,196 crore, up 11.7 per cent in the quarter ended March 31, 2022 against a net profit of Rs 3,755.47 crore in the year-ago period.
Sequentially, net profit rose 3.4 per cent from Rs 3,755.47 crore in December quarter (Q3FY22). Revenue from operations for the period came at Rs 17,754.02 crore, up 15 per cent in the March quarter. The company reported a revenue of Rs 15,404.37 crore in the corresponding period.
Its consolidated total income stood at Rs 18,252.64 crore as against Rs 10944.64 crore in the year-ago quarter. Total expenses were higher at Rs 12632.29 crore in Q4 as compared with Rs 9,765.56 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.
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