HDFC Life shares fall 4% post Q4 results. Should you buy, sell or hold?

Meanwhile, the net premium income for the same period increased by 5% to Rs 20,534 crore as against Rs 19,469 crore in the last year period.

Despite the budget changes impacting high ticket-sized businesses this year, the company delivered an APE growth of 20% for Q4 after adjusting for the one-off business of Rs 1,000 crore in March 2023.

The company's stated aspiration of double-digit growth for the full year was achieved with us clocking an 11% APE growth for FY24, on a normalised basis. HDFC Life clocked an individual APE growth of 1% on an unadjusted basis during the reporting quarter.

Should you buy, sell or hold HDFC Life's stock? Here's what analysts say

Citigroup (Buy)

Citigroup maintained a buy rating on HDFC Life but slashed the target to Rs 710 from Rs 720 earlier.

It is a good medium-term stock pick, but near-term headwinds are likely to persist. The management sounded cautious about product pricing owing to elevated competition.

Agency productivity improvement can surprise positively.

JM Financial (Buy)

maintained its Buy rating on HDFC Life with an unchanged target price of Rs 819.

"We reiterate that HDFC Life has ably faced multiple headwinds, coming in from taxation on higher ticket policies, bloated costs due to Exide Life acquisition and competition in parent banca, while the stock has derated on concerns of strict regulations and HDFC Bank bringing its shareholding to below 50%. With their evolved product suite, we expect the company to deliver consistent topline growth, and improve VNB margins over FY25-FY26," it said.

Motilal Oswal (Neutral)

Motilal Oswal reiterated its Neutral rating on HDFC Life with a target price of Rs 670.

"We have cut our APE growth and VNB margins assumptions based on 4QFY24 performance and the guidance. We now estimate HDFCLIFE to deliver ~16% VNB CAGR over FY24-26 and margin to be steady in the range of 26-27%," Motilal said.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)