Asian Paints painted red

Asian Paints is painted in the shade of red today and the painter is Nomura. The stock has dropped 2.5% to Rs.863 levels after 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.