Stock Views on NTPC, Cairn India, Lanco Infra

GOLDMAN Sachs on NTPC - TARGET PRICE: RS 208

GOLDMAN Sachs Research has initiated coverage on the stock with a ‘buy’rating, saying NTPC’s business model entails a high degree of earnings visibility with core business consistently yielding 20% plus return on equity(RoE). “NTPC scores well as a defensive growth op-tion. It has the lowest risk to funding amongst its peers, competitive cost of generation, RBI guarantee for payment realisation from its customers (financially-constrained SEBs) up to FY2016 and inexpen-sive valuations,” said Goldman Sachs Research in a note to its clients. The firm expects the company’s net profit to grow at a compounded annual rate of 7.3% between FY2008 and FY2011E (estimated).

Macquarie on Cairn India - TARGET PRICE: RS 276

Macquarie Research has reaffirmed its ‘outperform’ rating on the stock, but has cut the target price by 1.4% to Rs 276 due to the change in 2008 West Texas Intermediate (WTI) forecast. “We have revised down the WTI crude oil price forecast by 6.3% for 2008. Our new forecast has the 2008 figure adjusted down to reflect the recent weakness in prices and the risk that slowing demand growth keeps prices in a range of $100-110/bbl (blue barrel),” said Macquarie in a note to its clients.

UBS Securities on TARGET PRICE: RS 250

UBS Securities has upgraded its rating on the stock to ‘buy’from ‘sell’, but has trimmed the price target to Rs 250. The firm has cut its earnings per share(EPS) estimates for the stock by 10%/20%/19% to Rs 19/22.4/33.3 for FY09/10/11E to reflect a slowdown in project execution. It has also made of 10% discount to the power, engineering procurement and construction (EPC) business and infrastructure valuation for the company. “