HDFC Bank (HDB): The Best Indian Stock to Buy According to Billionaires
We recently published a list of the 10 Best Indian Stocks to Buy According to Billionaires. In this article, we will take a look at where HDFC Bank Limited (NYSE:HDB) stands against other best Indian stocks.
India's stock market had a rough ride during the second half of FY25, amid uncertainty around US tariffs, weak earnings, and persistent foreign outflows. Analysts expect the volatility to extend into the new financial year, especially after the Trump administration unveiled fresh tariffs on April 2.
READ ALSO: 10 Best European Stocks To Buy According to Billionaires and 20 Stocks Insiders Bought in April After Trump's Tariff Rollout.
In recent years, millions of Indian investors have piled into stocks, hoping to build wealth by betting on their country's strong economic growth. Social media has been buzzing with 'finfluencers' offering financial advice and trends. Easy-to-open online brokerage accounts and stock funds have also wooed the population, especially youngsters and retirees, into investing.
Several notable billionaires have also made significant investments in Indian stocks, reflecting the market's growing appeal. As of November 2024, Rajiv Jain's GQG Partners was the fourth-largest shareholder in Gautam Adani's firm. Late last year, billionaire Azim Premji's private equity firm also acquired a 1.6% stake in a leading Indian technology services and consulting company.
Last Monday, many investors were dealt a blow as the stock market lost $170 billion, with two of the country's most prominent indexes plummeting from fears that Trump's new tariffs would ignite a global recession. Foreign institutional investors sold shares valued at $1.05 billion during the day, the highest outflow since February 28. The market fell again on Wednesday, as the 27% tariff on Indian exports to the US took effect.
Here is what Nilesh Shah, managing director at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management, was quoted by Reuters as saying about the situation:
'Indian markets are unable to quantify the uncertainty unleashed by the tariff war. The unfolding events will likely keep sellers on an aggressive sell mode and buyers on a reluctant buy mode.'
On April 9, the Reserve Bank of India cut the interest rate by 0.25% and reduced its growth forecast for this year from 6.7% to 6.5%. Sanjay Malhotra, the governor of the central, stated the following in a speech:
'The recent trade tariff-related measures have exacerbated uncertainties, clouding the economic outlook across regions, posing new headwinds for global growth and inflation.'
While multiple brokerage firms expect the tariffs to hurt India's GDP growth for FY26, government officials in Delhi, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to a media outlet, expect the country to meet the 6.3%-6.8% growth projection if oil prices stay below $70 per barrel. A finance ministry official said they had already made provisions in the budget for duty remission schemes to help exporters.
A business owner tallying their profits in the back office of a local banking branch.
For this article, we scanned Insider Monkey's Q4 2024 proprietary database of billionaires' stock holdings and identified Indian stocks from the list. From there, we picked the top 10 stocks with the highest number of billionaires having a stake in them. Where two or more stocks were tied on billionaire sentiment, we used the dollar value of billionaire holdings as a tiebreaker between them.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Number of Billionaires: 14
Billionaire Holdings: $1,156,462,828
HDFC Bank Limited (NYSE:HDB) provides banking and financial services to individuals and companies in India, Bahrain, Dubai, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The company's offerings include retail banking, wholesale banking, asset management, insurance, stockbroking, treasury operations, and other financial services.
On January 21, HDFC Bank Limited (NYSE:HDB) declared financial results for the quarter that ended December 31, 2024. Net consolidated revenue was posted at ₹652.8 billion, with consolidated profit after tax of ₹176.6 billion. Earnings per share for the quarter were logged at ₹23.1. The bank's average deposits grew 15.9% year-over-year to reach ₹24,528 billion at the end of the quarter.
In March, HDFC Bank Limited (NYSE:HDB) signed an MoU with India's Air Force and the CSC Academy to launch Project HAKK, a program to support defense veterans and their families. The bank will initially set up 25 centers across Air Force units to provide financial training, pension assistance, and banking services.
HDFC Bank Limited (NYSE:HDB) is one of the best Indian stocks to buy, with returns of over 5% so far in 2025. Shares were up by 3.96% over the past week in the run-up to the board meeting on April 19 to approve financial results for the quarter that ended March 31.
Overall, HDB ranks 1st among the 10 best Indian stocks to buy according to billionaires. While we acknowledge the potential of HDB, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than HDB but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
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