Citi boosts Paytm to ‘buy’; it sees an increase of about 21% as regulatory risks come to the fore
Shares of digital payments firm Paytm were in focus in Thursday’s session (October 24, 2024) as international firm Citi upgraded the stock to ‘buy’ from an earlier ‘sell’ call and doubled the price to Rs 900 on the comparison. Rs 440 earlier. The set target implies an upside of about 21 percent from the previous day’s closing levels of Rs 745 apiece on the BSE.
The brokerage said regulatory risks now appear to be far behind.
This development comes largely on the heels of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) approval of the Noida-based fintech company to onboard new UPI users. The NPCI gave approval to the company after addressing regulatory concerns raised by the apex bank earlier this year.
After the advance, the stock ended 8.5 percent higher at Rs 745.1 per share.
Notably, in February, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ordered Paytm to stop registering new users amid regulatory violations.
Additionally, Citi said the company has announced plans to offer Default Loss Guaranteed (DLG), compliant with RBI norms, to its borrower partners in the retail loan distribution business.
Paytm Q2 FY25 Results
Digital payments company Paytm—owned by One97 Communications— reported a consolidated profit of Rs 928.3 crore for the quarter ended September 30 due to a one-time special benefit. The company posted a net loss of Rs 838.9 crore and Rs 290.5 crore in the previous quarter and the July-September 2023 period, respectively.
