India's payments fintech landscape is on a monetisation improvement trajectory, with leading players increasingly entrenched in their respective core areas of leadership, according to the Citi note on Pine Labs.

Stocks To Buy: Underperforming IPO gets a thumbs up from Citi with 31% upside potential

Seven analysts have coverage on Pine Labs now, with three each having a "buy" and "hold" recommendation, while one has a "sell" rating. The consensus estimates of price targets implies an upside potential of 27% from current levels.

By Shloka Badkar

Shares of Pine Labs Ltd. were trading higher on Wednesday, April 15, after brokerage firm Citi initiated coverage on the stock.

Citi has initiated coverage with a "buy" rating on Pine Labs with a price target of ₹235 per share, implying an upside of 31.3% from its previous closing price.

The brokerage said India's payments fintech landscape is on a monetisation improvement trajectory, with leading players increasingly entrenched in their respective core areas of leadership.

While the product, services and distribution build-outs into comprehensive plays will continue across the fintech ecosystem, large players don't face significant disruption risks owing to:

Across-the-board profitability push.

Rising regulatory costs and compliance requirements.

Stickiness borne out of integration into enterprise business workflows, Citi said.

Also, while consumer payments has seen a flux in competitive positioning in the past decade, there have been relatively fewer changes in positioning and leadership within segments in merchant payments, Citi added.

Shares of Pine Labs are off opening highs, currently trading 0.8% higher at ₹180.28. The stock is still down 25% from its issue price of ₹242 per share. Shares have gained 11% in the last month but are down 24% so far in 2026.

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