Fresh Ratings and Target Prices on Infosys, IndusInd, JSW Steel, and 7 Key Stocks
Dalal Street opened to an avalanche of high-stakes institutional research on Monday, October 26, 2026, as premier global and domestic brokerage houses issued decisive rating actions, target price revisions, and post-earnings evaluations on 10 prominent corporate counters. The comprehensive updates reflect a pronounced divergence in institutional sentiment across the financial sector, infrastructure materials, pharmaceutical leaders, commercial automotive operations, and information technology heavyweights. While analysts upgraded growth-oriented companies backed by strong operational delivery and defensive pipelines, several key counters faced downgrades, target trims, and cautious commentary triggered by compressed net interest margins, cost inflation, seasonal provisions, and trimmed revenue guidance.
Banking Heavyweights Under the Lens: Divergent Views on IndusInd, Kotak, and IDFC First Bank
The financial services sector drew intensive scrutiny from foreign institutional desks, highlighting mixed operating metrics across asset quality, margins, and loan book structures. For IndusInd Bank, Macquarie retained an "Underperform" recommendation with a target price of ₹760, acknowledging that bottom-line profitability exceeded estimates due to robust non-interest treasury and fee revenue, which supported an improved Return on Assets (ROA) despite narrowing core interest margins. Concurrently, UBS reiterated a "Sell" rating with a target price of ₹870 on IndusInd Bank, noting that second-quarter net profit arrived at ₹1,240 crore—beating consensus projections by 12 percent on the back of resilient fee accruals and controlled credit provisioning—while pointing out that Net Interest Income (NII) expanded by 3.6 percent year-on-year even as Net Interest Margin (NIM) softened sequentially to 3.23 percent. Across the private banking landscape, Bernstein assigned a "Market Perform" rating to Kotak Mahindra Bank with a target price of ₹500, observing that while earnings per share (EPS) surged 29 percent year-on-year and 2 percent quarter-on-quarter alongside a 25 percent balance sheet expansion, the lender’s ROA slipped 22 basis points sequentially, with asset growth primarily tilted toward large corporate credit lines. In contrast, Goldman Sachs took a "Neutral" stance on IDFC First Bank with an ₹85 target price, noting that Q2 profit after tax stood at ₹1,050 crore with an annualized ROA of 0.9 percent matching estimates; the bank successfully expanded core business revenues by 22 percent year-on-year while deliberately shedding high-cost bulk deposits, steering total customer deposits to a healthy 14 percent growth rate.
Metals and Auto Review: Divergent Calls on Jindal Steel, JSW Steel, and Tata Motors CV
Industrial and manufacturing counters elicited contrasting institutional reactions as analysts weighed operational efficiencies against rising input cost pressures. Citi maintained a bearish posture on Jindal Steel, retaining its "Sell" rating while lowering its target price from ₹900 to ₹850; although the company's adjusted Q2 EBITDA climbed 34 percent year-on-year to ₹2,500 crore on a 27 percent jump in delivery volumes and a ₹650 per tonne sequential rise in steel realizations, a steep 14 percent surge in operating costs neutralized these gains, leaving domestic EBITDA per tonne under sustained pressure. Conversely, CLSA maintained an optimistic "Outperform" rating on JSW Steel with an aggressive target price of ₹1,500, highlighting that Q2 operating EBITDA surpassed Street estimates thanks to elevated dispatch volumes and healthy profitability from overseas subsidiaries, with further margin expansion expected in the third quarter as finished steel prices improve and captive iron ore costs trend lower. In the commercial automotive sector, Nomura reiterated a "Buy" recommendation on Tata Motors' commercial vehicle (CV) business with a target price of ₹511, stating that Q2FY27 performance was broadly in line with projections and standalone EBITDA margins stabilized at 11.7 percent, though warning that raw material commodity inflation could delay further margin expansion. Addressing retail asset financing, CLSA maintained an "Outperform" rating on Shriram Finance with a target price of ₹1,100, explaining that while net profit missed expectations by 4 percent due to elevated credit provisions caused by seasonal factors and regional drought conditions, these credit costs are projected to stabilize back toward a normalized 2 percent run-rate.
IT Guidance vs Margin Trajectory & Pharma Upgrade: Infosys, Coforge, and Torrent Pharma
High-profile technology and healthcare counters witnessed notable analytical adjustments following their quarterly earnings scorecards. In the software services domain, global brokerages expressed sharply divided views on tech bellwether Infosys; HSBC maintained a "Hold" rating with a target price of ₹1,110, voicing caution over the company’s decision to temper its FY27 constant currency revenue growth projection down to 1–2 percent—a forecast trailing at the lower band of peer competitors—despite acknowledging a major $2 billion mega deal as a structural positive. On the other hand, UBS issued a confident "Buy" call on Infosys with a target price of ₹1,415, reporting that while Q2 constant currency revenue growth of 1.2 percent quarter-on-quarter trailed the 1.5 percent estimate, EBIT margins held firm at 21 percent (down just 10 basis points) and EPS stood at ₹19.3, trailing consensus by only 1 to 2 percent. Mid-tier IT major Coforge earned a decisive "Buy" rating from Jefferies with a target price of ₹2,230, as analysts looked past a minor bottom-line miss to applaud better-than-expected operating margins, an order book expansion of 7 percent quarter-on-quarter, and an accelerating pipeline of high-value client contracts. Rounding out the healthcare basket, Kotak Institutional Equities upgraded Torrent Pharmaceuticals to a "Buy" rating with an ambitious target price of ₹5,665, observing that Q2FY27 operational delivery was in line with expectations, driven by double-digit revenue momentum across domestic formulations, the US market, and key branded overseas territories, which comfortably absorbed transient operational headwinds and elevated research outlays in Germany and Jammu & Kashmir, paving the way for a projected 19 percent annualized EBITDA CAGR between FY26 and FY29.
