Analysts said the growth was lower-than-expected given that the October-December period was a festive season.
Bajaj Finance stock ended 7.21% lower at ₹6,099.
shares fell 5.10% to ₹1,468. Bajaj Finserv holds 52.49% stake in Bajaj Finance.
Analysts said slower growth has raised questions about the prospects of
shares, which are considered expensive compared to other lenders.
“In a rising interest rate scenario, banks with CASA are beneficiaries, while NBFCs are less competitive because of rising cost of funds,” said Sandip Sabharwal, founder of asksandipsabharwal.com, a Mumbai-based investment advisory. “Moreover, Bajaj Finance’s valuations are also double that of and the stock is over-owned.”
The Price to Book (PB) ratio of Bajaj Finance is at 8.4 times as against 3.4 of HDFC Bank and 3.14 of
.
CLSA maintained a ‘sell’ rating on Bajaj Finance with a target price of ₹6,000. It said that the lender’s loan growth was slow despite the festive season and the stock remains “unjustifiably expensive.” In the past year, Bajaj Finance shares have been underperformers. The stock has declined 20% in the period as against marginal upside in the benchmark Nifty.
During the December quarter, the company saw 3.1 million new customers as against 2.6 million in the September quarter. Its deposit book grew 41% YoY to ₹43,000 crore as of December 31, 2022.
“This performance was slightly lower than street expectations in the December quarter which is usually a strong quarter led by festive demand,” said Vidhi Shah of Antique Stock Broking. “Deposits growth continues to remain robust, thus improving its borrowing profile by making it more retail and granular. Capital adequacy remains healthy, and liquidity position also remains strong.”
