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 Zoomcar Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZCAR) 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.
Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash
Methodology
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).
Zoomcar Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZCAR)
Number of Billionaires: 2
Billionaire Holdings: $25,508
Zoomcar Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZCAR) is a leading online car-sharing marketplace, headquartered in Bengaluru, India. The company’s platform connects hosts with guests, who pick from a selection of cars at affordable rates.
On April 8, the company expanded its product range with the launch of Zoomcar Vouchers, allowing users to prepay for future trips. The announcement is expected to further improve customer retention and encourage repeat user behaviour. Zoomcar Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZCAR) noted in the press release that repeat user bookings are now exceeding bookings from new users.
On February 14, Zoomcar Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZCAR) declared financial results for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2024. The company’s contribution profit reached a record high of $1.28 million. This represented 52% of the revenue and was significantly higher from $0.21 million in the prior year’s period. This marked the fifth successive quarter of positive contribution profit.
During the three months ended December 31, 2024, contribution profit increased to $12.39, as compared to $2.40 per booking for the three months ended December 31, 2023. Zoomcar Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZCAR)’s number of bookings during the quarter also increased 19% year-over-year, amid a 2x increase in the repeat user booking rate.
The company also noted a 28% reduction in its Cost of Revenue from last year. Technology expenses were down 41% from year-over-year, while marketing costs decreased 80% compared to the same period in 2023. This helped Zoomcar Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZCAR) to significantly lower its adjusted EBITDA loss from $10.17 million in Q3 2023 to $3.15 million for the recent quarter.
Zoomcar Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZCAR) is among the best Indian stocks to buy. According to Insider Monkey’s database, two billionaires held a stake in the company at the end of Q4 2024.
Overall, ZCAR ranks 10th among the 10 best Indian stocks to buy according to billionaires. While we acknowledge the potential of ZCAR, 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 ZCAR 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.
