Apollo Hospitals, Max Health may see further earnings downgrades, bearish Macquarie warns

Shares of hospital stocks Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd

. and Max Healthcare Institute Ltd. are trading lower on Friday, January 9, after brokerage firm Macquarie reiterated its 'Underperform' ratings on both stocks.

Macquarie maintained its 'Underperform' call on Apollo Hospitals but raised its price target to ₹6,230 per share from ₹5,700 earlier.

For Max Healthcare, the brokerage also has an 'Underperform' rating, with a price target of ₹825. This is the lowest target on the Street and the only one below ₹1,000.

The foreign brokerage said in its note that shares of Apollo Hospitals and Max Healthcare have underperformed the Nifty 50 by 14% in 2025 so far. Macquarie expects further consensus earnings downgrades to continue weighing on the stocks in 2026.

The brokerage noted aggressive capacity expansion across the sector, citing that eight listed hospital chains have guided to add more than 6,000 beds by the end of FY27. This represents the largest annual capacity expansion seen in the last eight years.

Macquarie added that the EBITDA drag from these new hospitals is not adequately reflected in current consensus estimates, which could pose downside risks to earnings.

Shares of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise are down 0.28% at ₹7,345, while Max Healthcare Institute is trading 0.76% lower at ₹1,022.