Citi upgraded the stock to ‘Buy’ from ‘Sell’ and raised its target price to ₹1,400 from ₹1,000, implying an upside of about 21% from Tuesday’s closing price.
The stock had witnessed its biggest single-day gain and highest trading volumes since January 2021 in the previous session.
A total of 1.67 crore shares changed hands on Tuesday, nearly 10 times the 20-day average volume of 17.1 lakh shares. Of these, 43 lakh shares, or 26% of the total traded quantity, were marked for delivery, higher than the 20-day average of 9 lakh shares.
The foreign brokerage said its upgrade is driven by a “thesis-changing” 18% year-on-year growth in recruitment billings in the first quarter of FY27, compared with 10% growth in both the fourth quarter and full-year FY26.
According to Citi, the stronger billings growth appears to have been driven primarily by higher average revenue per user (ARPU), aided by AI-powered offerings such as AI-Rex, Talent Pulse and Naukri Pro, rather than an increase in hiring volumes.
It said that hiring activity, as reflected by the Jobspeak Index, has remained subdued.
The brokerage believes this shift towards higher monetisation will support stronger billings growth over the coming years. It has raised its recruitment billings growth estimates for FY27 and FY28 to 14% and 12%, respectively, from 9% and 7% earlier.
Citi also increased its FY27 and FY28 EBITDA estimates by 5% and 15%, respectively, while raising its profit after tax estimates by 8% and 17%.
It also increased the valuation multiple for Info Edge’s core classifieds business to 24 times FY28 EV/EBITDA from 10 times earlier.
The brokerage highlighted that AI-Rex is now live across more than 4,000 enterprise customers and recruitment firms, with over 10% already converted into paying clients.
It added that the platform has witnessed encouraging early adoption, with a sharp increase in hiring mandates processed between February and June 2026. Citi believes AI-Rex can drive sustained monetisation growth even if IT hiring remains subdued.
Despite the recent rally, the stock is still trading about 22% below its 52-week high of ₹1,489 and remains down 13% so far in 2026.
