Asian Paints once again in red

Asian Paints is once again in the red today morning, down intra day by over 2.5% at Rs.852.50; it has recovered very slightly to Rs.856, nevertheless down over 2%.

Last week the stock was down after a slew of brokerage houses downgraded the stock. Today, Kotak put out a report saying that it looks like the company has cut prices, right across the board, for its entire decorative segment portfolio. The price cut is at an average of around 3%. Kotak has said that this price cut could mean a 3-5% drop in FY18 EPS estimates and it maintained its rating downgrade to “reduce” on account of expensive valuations.

Last week, Nomura issued a report stating that it had downgraded the stock to “neutral” from earlier call of “buy”. It has also cut the price target from Rs.870 to Rs.798. Nomura has said that it finds the current valuations to be expensive as it does not see much earming visibility once crude oil price stabilizes. It also revised down revenue growth assumptions, and expected improvements in EBITDA margins from FY2016 but not significant expansion.

Reuters data shows that there are a total of 37 analysts who track this stock and of this 18 have a “buy” call, 13 have a “hold” and only 6 have given a “sell”. The average price target of all these 37 stands at Rs.870.