ITC shares surge 4% as company says it will host 'analysts day'

NEW DELHI: Shares of FMCG and cigarette maker ITC jumped as much as 4 per cent after the company announced to host an 'Institutional Investors and Financial Analysts Day’.

The stock traded up 3.78 per cent at Rs 233.45 on BSE in the afternoon session on Thursday.

“The Company will hold its 'Institutional Investors and Financial Analysts Day' on Tuesday, 14 December 2021, from 10.30 am. The presentation(s) made at the aforesaid event will be submitted to stock exchanges and hosted on the company's website in due course,” ITC said in a statement.


Sandip Sabharwal, an independent analyst, suggested the management has done so under the pressure due to non-performance of the stock. “Let’s see what comes out,” he added in a tweet.


Shares of ITC have been consistent underperformers, despite analysts being bullish on the company. The biggest drag for the company has been its asset-heavy businesses like hotels.

Aswath Damodaran, professor of finance at the Stern School of Business, New York University in a lecture on Wednesday said he would ascribe higher valuation to ITC if it did nothing to grow. ITC can best be described as a human being in their old age — a company that should be destined to a slow death no matter how many times it tries to reinvent itself, he added.

“If you are a company like ITC, your best days are behind you. You can dance around it as much as you want but your central business is tobacco, and no matter where you are in the world, your future is essentially more downhill than uphill,” Damodaran said.

In the last three years, ITC is down 15 per cent and is largely flat in the 5-year period. Though in the last one year, it is up 13 per cent but still lags the upside in Sensex and Nifty.

ITC has a median price target of Rs 271 in 12 months by 33 analysts, meaning a potential upside of 16 per cent from current levels, the data available with Refinitiv shows. The highest target pegs the stock at Rs 345 (Upside: 48 per cent) and the lowest at Rs 225 (Downside: 3 per cent).