Brokerages initiate coverage with a buy rating on these top 10 stocks which may return 11-62%

"In the short-run, the geopolitical situation, elections or US-China trade war may make the market volatile. But in the long-run, the market will perform irrespective of these factors. Long-term investors should ignore such factors and focus on business with strong and consistent earnings growth and a prudent and experienced management," Siddharth Sedani, Vice President - Equity Advisory at Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers told Moneycontrol.

He believes the fundamentals of Indian markets are on a firm footing, with expected earning revival in an environment of benign inflation and robust GDP growth.

After the near-term volatility, Shibani Kurian, Senior Vice-President and Head of Equity Research, Kotak Mahindra AMC, also believes that the market's focus would then shift to fundamentals and valuations. "The pace of improvement in domestic earnings growth would assume importance for the remainder of the year."

She expects earnings growth improvement to be visible in FY20 (in the range of around 16-18 percent).

Hence, Jimeet Modi, Founder & CEO, SAMCO Securities & StockNote, feels investors should now start adding top quality stocks to their portfolio at lower levels.

Here are top 10 stocks where brokerages have initiated coverage for the first time in the second half of February and which can deliver 11-62 percent return in the next one-year:

Brokerage: Antique Stock Broking

Welspun Enterprises: Buy | Target: Rs 172 | Return: 62%

Welspun Enterprises (WEL) is an asset recycling infrastructure model, offering investors a margin of safety and growth opportunity at an attractive valuation.

Unlike other companies in the road sector, where burgeoning order backlog and new project bids could possibly stretch balance sheets, WEL is a company that has developed assets, even beyond roads, sold them, and bid for new projects. And it has all happened with adequate cushion of cash in hand. Not many have walked the strategic sale talk.

Even better, WEL has an Rs 5,750 crore order backlog in hand. Further, between FY18 and FY21, the company can deliver a revenue/EBITDA/net profit growth of 59/90/48 percent CAGR respectively. We initiate coverage with a buy.

Brokerage: Antique Stock Broking

Oberoi Realty: Buy | Target: Rs 630 | Return: 29%

We initiate coverage with a buy rating on Oberoi Realty as it is a dominant Player in Mumbai, with healthy rental income and strong balance sheet.

With expected revenue of Rs 2,400 crore in FY19E, Oberoi Realty is a dominant real estate developer in Mumbai, the most lucrative real estate market in India. With a robust execution track record ORL is one of the strongest brands in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and second largest developers in terms of sales value (INR mn) in last 5 years.

Although ORL is executing two mixed-use developments at Borivali and Worli, both of which are high capex intensive, the company has strong balance sheet and has one of the lowest D/E ratio (around 0.20) in the industry.

With NAV of Rs 525 per share (Thane, Sky City extension and social infrastructure not included) and potential volume growth due to new project acquisitions, the target price of Rs 630/ share is a significant upside.

Brokerage: Yes Securities

Birla Corporation: Buy | Target: Rs 655 | Return: 29%

The company is currently trading at EV/EBITDA of 7.3x/6.7x on FY20E/FY21E which is at steep discount of around 30 percent to average valuation of its mid-cap peers (Ramco Cements, JK Cement and JK Lakshmi).

We believe Birla Corporation should fetch premium valuations and valuation gap with peers to narrow down on account of a) strong brand presence in fast growing markets, b) improvement in operating efficiencies and c) stable balance sheet going ahead.

We have valued the company at EV/EBITDA of 9x on FY20E arriving at a target price of Rs 655 per share. We initiate coverage on the stock with a buy rating.

Brokerage: Equirus

Ahluwalia Contracts: Long | Target: Rs 376 | Return: 26%

Ahluwalia Contracts (AHLU) is a Delhi-based integrated EPC company in the building construction space, and among a handful of players with proven execution capabilities and a lean balance sheet.

Govt's infra development push is opening new market and opportunities for AHLU, which should continue to boost its order book. A 3x book-to-sales ratio offers strong revenue visibility and we expect company to achieve 17 /21 percent revenue/PAT CAGR over FY18-FY21E.

With a strong orderbook, proven execution, a lean balance sheet and upcoming opportunities in key markets, we are long-term positive on AHLU. Initiate coverage with LONG and a SOTP-based target price of Rs 376.

Brokerage: Equirus

Subros: Long | Target: Rs 312 | Retrun: 25%

Subros is market leader in automotive AC parts with a 42 percent market share. Maruti Suzuki is the largest customer (contributed 69 percent of FY18 Sales), it is also largest supplier to OEMs like Tata Motors and M&M.

Moreover, a strong parentage (Denso Corp. 20 percent stake recently increased from 13 percent earlier at Rs 400/share) provides SUBR access to Denso's technological prowess, an enviable pipeline (new products to flow through) and thus a strong competitive edge.

We expect 10 /15 /31 percent sales/EBITDA/PAT CAGR over FY19-FY21, and initiate coverage on Subros with long and a Mar’20 target price of Rs 312 at 17x Mar’20 EPS. We believe that FY20 free cash flow yield of 8 percent provides strong valuation support.

Brokerage: Axis Securities

Symphony: Buy | Target: Rs 1,680 | Return: 31%

Symphony is well positioned in the air-coolers industry owing to its well established brand with high recall, asset light business model, substantial market share and growth in demand for the product on back of improving affordability.

Having gone almost bankrupt, Symphony emerged like a phoenix in the air-coolers market to become a global leader with ‘one product, many markets’ theme and acquiring companies in Mexico, China and Australia to expand its footprint overseas and into the industrial and commercial air-cooling market.

Symphony would be big beneficiary of rising temperature across globe due to global warming and changing weather patterns.

When computed over FY19E-FY21E, we estimate the company to post robust growth of 18 percent CAGR in revenues and 29 percent CAGR in earnings.

Brokerage: Anand Rathi Research

Maruti Suzuki: Buy | Target: Rs 8,482 | Return: 22%

With solid fundamentals and favourable macro traits, we believe the company is well positioned for long term growth and initiate our coverage on Maruti Suzuki India Limited with a buy rating and a target price of Rs 8,482 per share.

While the last quarter has been disappointing, we remain optimistic for the upcoming quarters owning to a number of factors including recovery in
domestic demand, MSIL’s localization efforts, capacity expansion from Gujarat plant and easing pressure on company’s expense base.

Brokerage: Reliance Securities

GAIL India: Buy | Target: Rs 382 | Return: 11%

We initiate coverage on GAIL (India) Ltd. with a buy recommendation and an SOTP-based target price of Rs 382.

We expect GAIL to witness 9 percent earning CAGR through FY19-21E backed by swing in gas volume from Hazira-Vijaypur-Jagdishpur (HVJ) (low tariff) to Dahej-Vijaipur pipeline (DVPL) (higher tariff), as the company will continue to swing in gas volume from HVJ to DVPL.

As guided by company, GAIL will be able to bring up the utilisation level of its Petrochemical plant from 74 percent in FY19 to 90 percent in FY20 and 98 percent in FY21.

GAIL Petchem segment to benefit from sustained higher margins, we expect Petrochemical EBITDA to grow by 30 /27 /30 percent in FY19/FY20/FY21. In higher crude prices scenario, gas trading segment is expected to reap margins from US LNG.

Brokerage: Stewart & Mackertich Research

Tech Mahindra: Buy | Target: Rs 954 | Return: 15%

We initiate coverage on Tech Mahindra Ltd with a buy rating. Telecom vertical which has been declining/flat for several quarters came back strong in last two quarters. Telecom which contributes 41 percent of revenue, grew 2.5 percent QoQ in USD in Q3FY19. We expect further thrust in communication vertical going forward.

Central to our investment rational is our view that Tech Mahindra is nicely putting in place the building blocks to win big in 5G. The industry expects 5G spending by the carriers to pick up in CY19, with Tech Mahindra getting its fair share of the network services piece from FY21.

Further, Enterprise is likely to maintain good growth aided by higher digital revenue and strong total contract value. Also, recent buyback announcements augur well for return ratios of the company.

Brokerage: Sunidhi Securities

City Union Bank: Buy | Target: Rs 225 | Return: 20%

Considering its strategy to continue with its niche of granular loans (mainly higher yielding working capital lending) in Southern locations (a market it knows well), management continuity, good capital position, control on operating costs and asset quality, healthy margins and return ratios, we initiate coverage on City Union Bank with a buy rating and a target price of Rs 225.

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