Geojit Investments Limited, a SEBI-registered research entity, has reaffirmed a BUY rating on Jio Financial Services Limited (JFSL), even as the NBFC's fourth-quarter profit contracted year-on-year. In a note dated July 2, 2026, Geojit's research team, led by analyst Anil R, set a rolled-forward 12-month target of Rs 273, implying roughly 14% upside from the current market price of Rs 240. The report credits JFSL's expanding BlackRock-linked asset management venture, robust loan disbursements, and an aggressive payments-ecosystem buildout for the constructive outlook — even as rising finance costs and elevated investment spending squeezed near-term profitability.

THE HEADLINE NUMBERS

Consolidated revenue for the January–March quarter (Q4FY26) surged 96.7% year-on-year to Rs 1,020 crore, propelled by strength in interest income and fee-based earnings across the company's core verticals.

Net interest income climbed 48.4% year-on-year to Rs 720 crore, a jump analysts attribute to expanding loan books and richer interest yields flowing from Jio Credit's growing lending franchise.

Profitability told a more complicated story. Pre-provision operating profit slipped 12.4% year-on-year to Rs 327 crore, weighed down by continued investment in nascent business lines and a treasury-income slump tied to sharp yield movements amid global geopolitical turbulence.

Net profit fell 13.9% year-on-year to Rs 272 crore, as scaling costs and investment-led expenditure outpaced top-line momentum.

THE BLACKROCK FACTOR

Central to Geojit's bullish thesis is JFSL's joint venture with global asset management titan BlackRock. JioBlackRock's mutual fund arm closed the year with assets under management of Rs 15,218 crore, a notable feat for a platform that only launched nine months earlier, in June 2025. Quarterly average AUM rose 21% sequentially to Rs 16,712 crore in Q4FY26, holding firm despite broader market volatility.

Insurance premiums facilitated through the company's distribution network rose 8% year-on-year to Rs 982 crore in FY26, aided by streamlined protection-plan journeys and an expanding network of point-of-sale agents.

PAYMENTS AND LENDING MOMENTUM

Jio Payments Bank posted a standout year on the deposit front, with FY26 deposits climbing 84.4% year-on-year to Rs 544 crore, driven by 61% growth in CASA customers to 3.7 million.

The bank's business correspondent network exploded nearly 19-fold year-on-year in Q4FY26, reaching 378,568 touchpoints — a sign of aggressive physical distribution expansion.

Lending disbursements advanced 49% year-on-year to Rs 10,629 crore in the fourth quarter, driven entirely by organic loan originations rather than acquired portfolios, according to management commentary on the earnings call.

The company also unveiled Savings Pro, billed as an industry-first bank account product that auto-invests customers' idle surplus liquidity into overnight debt mutual funds — a feature designed to squeeze extra yield out of dormant deposits.

THE VALUATION CASE

Geojit's target price rests on a price-to-book multiple of 1.3 times projected FY28 book value per share. The brokerage's revised estimates show meaningful upward revisions to the medium-term outlook, even after trimming near-term profit assumptions.

Net profit is projected to grow 34.6% in FY27 and a further 48.7% in FY28, reaching Rs 2,101 crore and Rs 3,125 crore respectively, even after Geojit trimmed its FY27 profit estimate by 15.1% from prior projections.

KEY LEVELS FOR INVESTORS

The stock has struggled over the trailing twelve months, shedding 21.1% of its value, and underperforming the Sensex by 14.3 percentage points on a relative basis — a gap Geojit's analysts appear to view as an entry opportunity rather than a warning sign.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Geojit frames JFSL's near-term earnings softness as a transitional cost of scaling, arguing that the phased maturation of its payments, lending, and asset-management businesses positions the company for durable long-term value creation. Management, per the brokerage's concall notes, is targeting further build-out of JioBlackRock's mutual fund suite, the operationalization of an Allianz insurance joint venture, and new "personal CFO" digital features as the next legs of growth.

For investors, the message is one of patience: a company still investing heavily in its own infrastructure, with the market apparently pricing in more caution than Geojit believes is warranted.