Artson Limited

Industrials — Engineering & Construction · BSE

₹151.00+₹1.90 (+1.27%)

DalalBaazaar Score

27 / 100

🔴 Weak

Verdict

HIGH RISK

Risk

Very High

Driven by high debt relative to equity, short-term liabilities exceed short-term assets, negative free cash flow.

In simple words: The company is currently losing money, but sales are shrinking. Debt is the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:46 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Artson Limited engages in the engineering, manufacturing, and construction (EMC) contracting activities in India and internationally.

IndustryEngineering & Construction

SectorIndustrials

Employees159

Annual revenue₹157 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹157 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹-7 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹-5 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 159 employees supports ₹99.0 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹99.0 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are LARSEN & TOUBRO LTD., ADANI PORT & SEZ LTD, SIEMENS LTD. 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?Little sign of one

Returns on capital of -47.9% are at or below what the capital likely costs. That is the financial pattern of a business competing largely on price, where advantage has to come from execution rather than position.

Peer median ROE14.1%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved +20% while net margin moved -61% 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+20%

Margin effect-61%

DalalBaazaar Score

27/ 100

Weak

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Return on equity is negative

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

27/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

21/ 100

Expensive

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

Weak on business quality and not cheap enough to compensate.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Not enough peers with a usable P/E

vs. generic bands

N/A

No P/E — the company is lossmaking

EV/EBITDA

—

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from -9.9% to -4.9% over 3 years.
Return on capital is rising
ROCE has improved from -197.7% to -47.9%.

🔴 What Needs Attention0

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

Red Flags

6 items require attention · 3 high · 3 watch

🔴High leverageFinancial
Debt/Equity of 138.68x — earnings must service borrowings before shareholders see anything.
🔴Thin interest coverageFinancial
Operating profit covers interest only -1.7x — little room if earnings dip.
🔴The company is lossmakingFinancial
Net profit of -₹11 Cr in the latest reported year.
🟡Interest coverage is deterioratingFinancial
Cover has fallen from 1.6x to -1.7x.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹8 Cr in the latest year.
🟡Short-term liquidity is tightFinancial
Current ratio of 0.98 — near-term obligations exceed near-term assets.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from -9.9% to -4.9%. If that holds, profit compounds faster than sales and today's multiple looks cheaper in hindsight than it does now.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Leverage amplifies any setback
Debt/Equity of 138.68x. Interest is payable whether or not the business has a good year.
Growth barely outpaces inflation
Revenue compounding at 6.2% a year is close to the rate prices rise, so the business is gaining little ground in real terms. That leaves the share price dependent on a re-rating rather than on earnings growth.
Earnings are hard to forecast
Profit has swung sharply from year to year, so any single year — good or bad — is a weak guide to the next. Cyclical earnings deserve lower multiples for that reason.
Size brings its own risk
Micro Cap businesses are thinly traded, so exits are harder in a falling market and single events move the price more than they would for a larger company.
Several serious flags at once
3 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

1EBITDA margin holds above -7%✓ -4.9%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹8 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
3Interest cover stays above 3x✗ -1.7x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.
4Revenue growth stays above 5% a year✓ 6.2% CAGR
Latest reported year was -41.6%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
5ROCE stays above 8%✗ -47.9%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

2 / 11 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
✗ Short-term technical trend isn't bearish

Price history

Quick Metrics

0 good · 2 neutral · 9 weak

Market Cap

₹557 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

Not meaningful

Loss-making

Earnings are negative, so a P/E multiple can't be read here

P/B Ratio

1438.10x

Rich

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

EPS (TTM)

₹-1.97

Loss-making

Negative earnings per share — the business is losing money

ROE

-2795.0%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

-47.9%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

138.68x

High

High leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

-41.6%

Shrinking

Sales are contracting

Profit Growth (YoY)

-412.4%

Falling

Profits are shrinking

Dividend Yield

None

No dividend yield reported — usually means no payout, but verify if one was recently initiated

Free Cash Flow

-₹8 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

2.2%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

-7.9%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

0.98

Adequate

Adequate, but no real cushion

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.63

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

25%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

157.3 / 158.4

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

40.3

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹131 Cr	₹128 Cr	₹114 Cr	₹157 Cr	+6.2%
EBITDA	-₹13 Cr	₹12 Cr	-₹3 Cr	-₹8 Cr	—
EBITDA Margin	-9.9%	9.3%	-2.8%	-4.9%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	-₹24 Cr	₹6 Cr	₹3 Cr	-₹11 Cr	—
EPS	₹-6.37	₹1.64	₹0.94	₹-2.95	—
ROE	—	661.3%	74.4%	-2795.0%	—
ROCE	-197.7%	45.6%	47.6%	-47.9%	—
Total Debt	₹59 Cr	₹64 Cr	₹49 Cr	₹54 Cr	-3.0%
Free Cash Flow	-₹7 Cr	-₹7 Cr	₹18 Cr	-₹8 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 6.2% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from -9.9% to -4.9% over 3 years (+4.9 pts).

🔴 ROE has fallen from 661.3% to -2795.0% over 3 years (-3456.3 pts).

🟢 ROCE has risen from -197.7% to -47.9% over 3 years (+149.9 pts).

🟢 Total Debt has shrunk at 3.0% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹123 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹123 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹5 Cr

Capex

-₹3 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

76.0%

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
LARSEN & TOUBRO LTD.	30.1x	15.2%
ADANI PORT & SEZ LTD	29.9x	14.1%
SIEMENS LTD	88.8x	10.5%

Recent News

1 mixed5 general

Artson Q2FY27 Results: Net profit turns positive at ₹200 lakh

scanx.trade, 16 OctResults

🟡Mixed / dependsA results event. The figures on this page update once the new statements reach the data feed, which usually lags the announcement.

ARTSON Stock Price and Chart — BSE:ARTSON

TradingView, 11 Jun

Artson Upper Circuit Today: Price, Data and Peers

Univest, 06 Oct

Artson Bags ₹5.39 Crore Deepak Chem Tech Order

HDFC Sky, 12 Jun

ARTSON LIMITED Share Price

Upstox, 05 May

Artson Engineering Ltd. Key Financial Ratios – Valuation, Profitability & More

Value Research, 02 Sept

Watch Items

Revenue growth is negative (-41.6%) on the latest reported period — check if this is one-off or a trend.
Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

WeakBusiness Quality · Financial Health · Growth · Profitability · Valuation · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Weak on the fundamentals

Poor scores on business quality without a price low enough to compensate. There is no obvious argument for owning this over a stronger company at a similar valuation. 3 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

3 of 5 tripwires tripped — Free cash flow remains positive; Interest cover stays above 3x; ROCE stays above 8% · see Key things to watch ↑