SBI Life shares gain post Q2 results, analysts see up to 39% upside

Shares of SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd. gained nearly 5% on Monday, October 27, reacting to their September quarter earnings and positive brokerage commentary.

Brokerages Citi, Jefferies and Nuvama have "buy" calls and see up to a 39% upside on the stock.

Citi 

Citi has a "buy" rating and a target price of ₹2,550 per share. The stock ended the previous session at ₹1,839.8 apiece.

The analyst said SBI LIfe's value of new business (VNB) increased 14% in the second quarter as well as the first half of the financial year 2026. Its VNB margin expanded by 100 basis points from the previous year, which was also 90 basis points higher than Citi's estimates. It was up 45 basis points sequentially.

Citi said the margin expansion, backed by product mix shift towards high-yielding segments, is encouraging. It said the impact of the absence of the input tax credit (ITC) benefits is contained at 174 basis points annually.

The management remained confident of a favourable business mix change, absorbing most of the impact, Citi said.

The brokerage added that the absence of distributor re-negotiations, especially in agency, augurs well for the near to medium-term growth.

Jefferies

Jefferies has a "buy" rating on the stock with a target price of ₹2,270 per share.

It said the second quarter VNB was ahead of estimates, aided by better product mix and attachment of protection on savings.

While the individual annualised premium equivalent (APE) growth in the first half of FY26 was soft at 6% compared to the previous year, the growth in the September month was healthy. The management also reiterated its guidance of 13-14% for FY26, it said.

Also, despite the impact of new GST reforms, margins could fall within the guided range of 26%-28%, Citi said.

Nuvama

Nuvama has a "buy" rating on the stock with a target price of ₹2,320 per share.

It said the company reported total APE growth of 10% in the second quarter as retail APE increased a moderate 6%, while group APE shot up 55.8% from the previous year.

SBI Life's second quarter margin expanded by 118 basis points to 28% as the mix came in favour of higher-margin business. This resulted in VNB growth of 14.9% from the previous year to ₹1,660 crore, compared to Nuvama's estimate of 6% increase.

The ITC impact on margins remains manageable and is likely to be offset by an improved business profile, Nuvama said.

The management reiterated its guidance of the APE growth estimate for FY26 at 13-14% along with the VNB margin of 26-28%, it added.

Shares of SBI Life increased 4.6% to hit an intraday high of ₹1,923.9 apiece on Monday. The stock was up 3% at ₹1,896 apiece around 10.40 am. It has gained 35.4% this year, so far.

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