APL Apollo Tubes Limited

Basic Materials — Steel · NSE

₹2,152.70+₹13.70 (+0.64%)

DalalBaazaar Score

65 / 100

🟢 Good

Verdict

NEUTRAL

Risk

Moderate

Driven by high debt relative to equity.

In simple words: Strong business and financial position, with modest growth. Debt is the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:00 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

The 60-second version of APL Apollo Tubes Limited — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

APL Apollo Tubes Limited manufactures and sells structural steel tubes and related value added products in India and internationally.

IndustrySteel

SectorBasic Materials

Employees3,131

Annual revenue₹22,385 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹22,385 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹5 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹9 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 3,131 employees supports ₹7.15 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹7.15 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are TATA STEEL LIMITED, JSW STEEL LIMITED, JINDAL STEEL LIMITED, STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA. These are the companies its valuation and returns are measured against elsewhere in this report.

Compared side by side in Peers ↓

What is its competitive advantage?The numbers suggest a real one

ROCE has stayed above 15% in every year available and stands at 28.0%. Returns that high normally get competed away; when they persist, something is protecting them, and its ROE of 22.7% against a peer median of 10.8% is consistent with that. What that something is — brand, scale, switching costs, regulation — the accounts cannot tell you.

Peer median ROE10.8%

What is the outlook?

19 analysts covering the stock expect revenue to grow about 15.8% and earnings to grow about 22.1% in the year to 2028. These are estimates by people who follow the company, not a forecast for the wider industry.

Est. revenue growth+15.8%

Est. earnings growth+22.1%

Analysts19

What has been driving growth?

Sales and margins have both contributed to where profit is now. Over 3 years revenue moved +43% while net margin moved +31% relative to itself. What this cannot tell you is which products, customers or geographies did the work — that lives in the segment disclosures of the annual report.

Revenue effect+43%

Margin effect+31%

DalalBaazaar Score

65/ 100

Good

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ P/E of 48.6x is demanding — it needs sustained high growth to justify
✓ P/E is 25% below its own historical median of 65.0x — cheap by its own standards
✗ P/B of 11.29x is a steep premium to book

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

70/ 100

Good

How good the business is, ignoring the share price entirely.

Valuation

42/ 100

Expensive

What you are being asked to pay, ignoring how good the business is.

A good business, but the price already reflects that. The quality is real; the question is whether you are overpaying for it today.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

48.6x

3Y Median

65.0x

40 monthly readings · mean 63.6x · range 49.7x–81.9x

Sector Median

18.2x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 25% below its 3y median of 65.0x. Cheaper than its own history, which is worth a reason too: the market may be pricing in something the backward-looking numbers do not show.

⚠️Against its sector it trades 167% above the peer median of 18.2x.

vs. its own history

Cheap

65.0x median over 40 months · -25%

vs. sector peers

Expensive

18.2x median of 4 peers · +167%

vs. generic bands

Expensive

Above 35x

EV/EBITDA

31.2x

PEG

2.09

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well6

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from 6.8% to 8.5% over 3 years.
Debt is being paid down
Total debt is down 43% over 3 years.
Cash flow has turned positive
Free cash flow moved from negative to positive over 3 years.
Return on capital is rising
ROCE has improved from 25.2% to 28.0%.
High return on capital employed
ROCE of 28.0% is the mark of a business that converts capital into profit efficiently.
Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention0

Nothing stands out as clearly deteriorating on the years of data available.

Red Flags

2 items require attention · 2 high

🔴High leverageFinancial
Debt/Equity of 9.40x — earnings must service borrowings before shareholders see anything.
🔴Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 155% against revenue up 43% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Capital compounds at a high rate
ROCE of 28.0% means each rupee reinvested earns well above what capital costs. If the company can keep deploying at this rate, growth creates value rather than just consuming cash.
Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from 6.8% to 8.5%. If that holds, profit compounds faster than sales and today's multiple looks cheaper in hindsight than it does now.
Deleveraging frees up earnings
Debt is down 43% over 3 years. Every rupee of interest not paid drops to the bottom line, so profit can grow even if revenue does not.
Priced below its own history
The stock trades 25% below its own median multiple. If the business performs as it has and simply re-rates back to normal, that gap is return on its own.
Earnings have proved durable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years. Consistency lowers the risk that any single bad year is structural rather than cyclical.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Leverage amplifies any setback
Debt/Equity of 9.40x. Interest is payable whether or not the business has a good year.
Sales are being booked faster than collected
Receivables are up 155% against revenue up 43%. If customers keep taking longer to pay, reported profit will not turn into cash — and write-offs follow if some never do.
A premium to the sector to defend
It trades 167% above the peer median. That premium needs a reason that persists, or it closes.
Several serious flags at once
2 high-severity checks triggered. Individually each has an explanation; together they raise the chance that something structural is wrong rather than a one-off.

🟡 Key Things to WatchMeasurable tripwires, set against where this company stands today

1Revenue growth stays above 9% a year✓ 12.6% CAGR
Latest reported year was 8.5%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 7%✓ 8.5%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Free cash flow remains positive✓ ₹1,409 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 0.3x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
5ROCE stays above 25%✓ 28.0%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

9 / 12 checks passed

✓ Strong return on equity (ROE ≥ 15%)
✓ Strong return on capital employed (ROCE ≥ 15%)
✗ Healthy net margin (≥ 10%)
✓ Generates positive free cash flow
✗ Manageable leverage (Debt/Equity < 1.0)
✓ Adequate short-term liquidity (Current Ratio ≥ 1.0)
✓ Revenue growing year-over-year
✓ Profit growing year-over-year
✗ Not trading at an extreme valuation (P/E < 40x)
✓ Not buying right at the 52-week high
✓ Analyst consensus isn't majority-sell
✓ Short-term technical trend isn't bearish

Price history

Quick Metrics

5 good · 3 neutral · 3 weak

Market Cap

₹59,772 Cr

Mid Cap

Mid-sized — more growth headroom, but sharper swings than large caps

P/E (Trailing)

48.6x

Expensive

Expensive — verify against sector peers

P/B Ratio

11.29x

Rich

Steep premium to book — needs high, durable returns to justify

EPS (TTM)

₹44.27

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

22.7%

Strong

Strong capital efficiency

ROCE

28.0%

Strong

Earns comfortably above its likely cost of capital

Debt/Equity

9.40x

High

High leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

8.5%

Modest

Modest growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

11.0%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

0.39%

Modest

Small cash return — most of the return has to come from the price

Free Cash Flow

₹1,409 Cr

Cash generative

Generates cash even after funding its capex

More Metrics

P/E (Forward)

33.8x

Improving

Below the trailing multiple — the street expects earnings to grow into the price

Operating Margin

6.3%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

5.2%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

1.34

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.33

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

76%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

2163.4 / 2144.7

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

43.6

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹15,674 Cr	₹17,507 Cr	₹19,996 Cr	₹22,385 Cr	+12.6%
EBITDA	₹1,064 Cr	₹1,254 Cr	₹1,261 Cr	₹1,914 Cr	+21.6%
EBITDA Margin	6.8%	7.2%	6.3%	8.5%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹642 Cr	₹732 Cr	₹757 Cr	₹1,203 Cr	+23.3%
EPS	₹23.14	₹26.4	₹27.28	₹43.34	+23.3%
ROE	21.4%	20.3%	18.0%	22.7%	—
ROCE	25.2%	23.1%	21.7%	28.0%	—
Total Debt	₹873 Cr	₹1,144 Cr	₹634 Cr	₹498 Cr	-17.1%
Free Cash Flow	-₹171 Cr	₹417 Cr	₹491 Cr	₹1,409 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 12.6% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 21.6% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from 6.8% to 8.5% over 3 years (+1.8 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 23.3% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EPS has grown at 23.3% a year over 3 years.

🟢 ROE has risen from 21.4% to 22.7% over 3 years (+1.4 pts).

🟢 ROCE has risen from 25.2% to 28.0% over 3 years (+2.8 pts).

🟢 Total Debt has shrunk at 17.1% a year over 3 years.

🟢 Free Cash Flow has turned positive, from -₹171 Cr to ₹1,409 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹8,833 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹3,537 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹644 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹2,103 Cr

Capex

-₹694 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

44.7%

Insider Holding

36.9%

Corporate Actions

Next Earnings

29 Oct 2026

Dividend Rate

₹8.5

Ex-Dividend Date

08 Sept 2026

Analyst Consensus

Recommendations

18 Buy · 0 Hold · 1 Sell

Target Price (Mean)

₹2,287.06

+6.2% vs CMP

Target Range

₹1,568 – ₹2,810

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
TATA STEEL LIMITED	19.8x	10.8%
JSW STEEL LIMITED	12.0x	24.7%
JINDAL STEEL LIMITED	39.1x	5.3%
STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA	16.5x	7.1%

Recent News

1 mixed5 general

APL Apollo Tubes (BSE:533758) - Stock Analysis

Simply Wall Street, 14 Oct

APL Apollo Tubes Ltd (APLAPOLLO) Share Price

Business Today, 16 Oct

APL Apollo Tubes - DIIs increase stake in 8 midcap stocks in Q2FY27

The Economic Times, 18 Oct

APL Apollo Tubes Q1FY27 volume drops 6% YoY to 744,823 Ton

scanx.trade, 15 Oct

APL Apollo Tubes Raises Product Prices; Further Hike From October 1

NDTV Profit, 23 Sept

APLAPOLLO Forecast — Price Target — Prediction for 2027

TradingView, 25 JunAnalyst view

🟡Mixed / dependsBroker commentary — an opinion about the price rather than new information about the business.

Watch Items

Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongFinancial Health · Growth · Profitability

MiddlingBusiness Quality · Risk

WeakValuation

Points for each in the Score ↑

Good business, demanding price

The quality is real and the price already reflects it. Buying here is a bet that the business keeps compounding for long enough to grow into the multiple — which good businesses often do, but it removes the margin for error that a lower price would have given you. 2 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

All 5 tripwires holding · see Key things to watch ↑