Source – https://www.businesstoday.in/markets/company-stock/story/irfc-shares-rise-target-price-buy-sell-or-hold-414727-2024-01-24
Publisher – Business Today
Shares of Indian Railway Finance Corporation Ltd (IRFC), the financial arm of the Indian Railways, gained over 7% amid a volatile stock market today. IRFC stock hit a record high of Rs 192.80 on January 23, 2024. However, it has lost 11% from record high since then. Despite trimming gains from record high, IRFC shares are trading in the overbought zone as the relative strength index (RSI) of IRFC stands at 76.2.
Shares of IRFC saw the highest turnover of Rs 506.07 crore today with 305.40 lakh shares changing hands on BSE. IRFC stock zoomed 7.22% to Rs 173.14 against the previous close of Rs 161.48 on BSE. Market cap of the firm climbed to Rs 2.25 lakh crore on BSE. Later, the stock ended 6.43% higher at Rs 171.86.
The stock is up 580% from its 52-week low hit last year. The IRFC stock fell to a 52 week low of Rs 25.45 on March 28, 2023.
IRFC stock has zoomed 428.02% in the last one year. In the current year, the stock has rallied 71.76%. The IRFC stock has a PE of 37.05, which indicates it’s overvalued compared to the sector. The sectoral PE stands at 16.19.
IRFC stock has a one-year beta of 1, indicating average volatility during the period. IRFC stock is trading higher than the 5 day, 10 day, 20 day, 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages.
Vaibhav Kaushik, Research Analyst, GCL Broking said, “Ahead of budget, strong buying coming in railway stocks. Stock can reach up to Rs 200 levels. Keep a stop loss of Rs 134.”
Ravi Singh, Market Expert said, “IRFC is showing some lower levels buying after a brief episode of profit booking in overall railway stocks. The stock is still in uptrend and may touch the levels of Rs 175 in near term. The chart patterns are in support of the uptrend and the volumes are also slowing picking up. The RSI and MAs are suggesting the trend to remain intact for some more time.”
Abhijeet from Tips2trades said, “IRFC stock price is bearish and extremely overbought with strong resistance at Rs 193 on the Daily charts. Investors should book profits at current levels as a daily close below support of Rs 150 could lead to target of Rs 120 in the near term.”
“With Budget around the corner, railways stocks have been witnessing sharp gains. It could be due to anticipation of a record budgetary allocation for the sector,” said Vishal Periwal, Sector Analyst (Infra) at IDBI Capital.
IRFC logged a profit of Rs 6,337 crore for the financial year 2022-23. Revenue from operations for FY23 rose 17.70 per cent to Rs 23,891 crore as against Rs 20,298 crore reported a year ago. The earnings per share of the company were Rs 4.85 at the end of FY23 as compared with Rs 4.66 in the year-ago period.
The board proposed a final dividend at 7 per cent of face value of Rs 10 each i.e. 70 paise per share for FY 2022-23.
Indian Railway Finance Corp borrows funds from the financial markets to finance the acquisition/creation of assets which are then leased out to the Indian Railways or any entity under the Ministry of Railways.
