Stocks to buy: Infosys, TCS, Zomato, Bharti Airtel, among Bernstein’s top stock picks for 2025

Stocks to buy: Global brokerage firm Bernstein has announced its top stock recommendations for 2025 emphasizing the importance of a ‘stick to the winners’ approach. Considering the growth opportunities in IT, media, and telecom, Bernstein’s top stock picks include Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Coforge, Persistent Systems, Zomato, and Bharti Airtel.

The brokerage favours IT stocks, due to an earnings upgrade cycle, a strong US macro environment, and recovery in discretionary/GenAI spending.

“We continue to prefer best-in-class large caps – Infosys, TCS – but also add growthier mid-caps to our preferred list – Persistent Systems and Coforge. Within the Internet, we expect Quick commerce to continue leapfrog other channels with growth led by new categories & Tier 2 expansion with Zomato being the biggest beneficiary,” Bernstein said.

The brokerage firm expects Infosys to deliver growth leadership (10% FY25-27) led by strengths in BFSI and US geography. TCS remains its second top pick in large cap IT services.

Bernstein adds Coforge with Persistent systems in its list of SMID IT driven by growth outperformance (18-20% FY25-27). Zomato is its top internet pick and as the beneficiary from Quick commerce (100% + YoY). It prefers Bharti Airtel as one of the two long-term winners in Telecom and expects near-term tariff hikes and continued consolidation.

Here are the top stock picks for 2025 by Bernstein:

Infosys | Outperform | Target Price: ₹2,350

Bernstein believes Infosys’ margins have room to improve amid strong positioning in cloud / digital services and strong pipeline with many billion dollar deals. Terming it a growth champion, the brokerage firm believes Infosys to be a beneficiary of spending improvement in US and Banks spends. It estimates the IT major’s FY25-27 growth rate of 10%+ with EPS growth of 14% CAGR. It continues to value Infosys at a multiple of 27x.

TCS | Outperform | Target Price: ₹4,820

Bernstein calls TCS a ‘margin champion’ and said its large deal wins are strong. It estimates FY25-27E growth rate of 9.5%+ with EPS growth rate of 13% CAGR. It continues to value TCS at a multiple of 27.5x.

Persistent Systems | Outperform | Target Price: ₹7,280

Persistent Systems has a leadership in software product engineering (45% of revenue) and technology led offering (cloud, AI), with strong management team and deep client base. It has the ability to win cost take out deals and has the fastest growing IT Services revenue over the last 3 years (up 30% CAGR). Margins have expanded from 12% in FY21 to 14.5% in FY24, Bernstein noted.

It expects Persistent to grow at a CAGR of 19% over FY25E-FY27E and EPS CAGR of 27% for FY25E-27E. It now values Persistent Systems at a multiple of 52.5x from 50x earlier.

Coforge | Outperform | Target Price: ₹11,280

Bernstein upgraded Coforge to Outperform and now values the stock at 43x NTM P/E multiple from earlier 32x, coming at a target price of ₹11,280 per share.

We expect Coforge to meet its revenue target of $2 billion by FY27. Revenue growth increased to Coforge’s target of $2 billion in revenue by FY27. We increase our consolidated FY25/26 EPS by 4.9%/11%, Bernstein said.

Zomato | Outperform | Target Price: ₹335

Zomato has leadership positioning in food delivery and Quick commerce, strong user acquisitions, expanding TAM through Dine Out and other growth options, Bernstein said.

Bharti Airtel | Outperform | Target Price: ₹1,770

Bharti Airtel is seen as a beneficiary of the telecom repair cycle. It has a leading ARPU growth, improving cash flow, growth opportunities in enterprise and fiber and 5G rollout, said the brokerage firm.

“We update our EPS estimates by -4.6%/-1.4% to account for increased subscriber churn post tariff hikes. We rollover to LTM Sep’26 and continue to value the India mobile services business at 11.5x EV/EBITDA,” Bernstein said.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.