Crop Life Science Limited

Sector n/a · NSE

₹48.35−₹1.85 (−3.69%)

DalalBaazaar Score

51 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

NEUTRAL

Risk

High

Driven by negative free cash flow, micro-cap size, which brings thin liquidity.

In simple words: The business is earning a fairly low return on the money invested in it, with modest growth. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 6:57 pm

Understanding the Business

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

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹207 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹3 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹9 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation.

What is its competitive advantage?Some evidence

ROCE of 15.1% is above what capital typically costs, which suggests some pricing power, though not yet the sustained, wide gap that marks a durable advantage.

What has been driving growth?

Growth has come mainly from selling more, rather than from keeping more of each sale. Over 3 years revenue moved +58% while net margin moved +3% 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+58%

Margin effect+3%

DalalBaazaar Score

51/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ ROE of 7.9% is weak

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

52/ 100

Average

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

Valuation

88/ 100

Cheap

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

A reasonable business at a reasonable price — neither the quality nor the valuation stands out in either direction.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Not enough peers with a usable P/E

vs. generic bands

No P/E available

EV/EBITDA

7.2x

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention1

Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 18.5% to 15.1% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

5 items require attention · 5 high

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 110% over 3 years, from ₹27 Cr to ₹57 Cr.
🔴Free cash flow negative for 4 yearsFinancial
The business has not covered its capital spending from operations for several years running, which has to be funded externally.
🔴Profit up while operating cash flow fallsFinancial
Reported profit rose but cash generated by operations declined — worth checking whether earnings are being supported by non-cash items or working capital.
🔴Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 128% against revenue up 58% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.
🔴Inventory building faster than salesFinancial
Inventory up 169% against revenue up 58% — stock may not be moving.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

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?

Sales are being booked faster than collected
Receivables are up 128% against revenue up 58%. If customers keep taking longer to pay, reported profit will not turn into cash — and write-offs follow if some never do.
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
5 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 12% a year✓ 16.4% CAGR
Latest reported year was 3.2%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 7%✓ 9.2%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✗ 3.0x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
4Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹10 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
5Interest cover stays above 3x✗ 2.9x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.

Investment Checklist

5 / 9 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
✗ Short-term technical trend isn't bearish

Price history

Quick Metrics

2 good · 7 neutral · 2 weak

Market Cap

₹83 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

P/B Ratio

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

EPS (TTM)

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

ROE

7.9%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

15.1%

Strong

Earns comfortably above its likely cost of capital

Debt/Equity

0.67x

Moderate

Moderate leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

3.2%

Modest

Modest growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

12.6%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

None

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

Free Cash Flow

-₹10 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Gross Margin

20.0%

Proxy

Operating margin unavailable — showing gross margin instead

Net Margin

3.2%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

1.55

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

63.8 / 74.1

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

44.6

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹131 Cr	₹198 Cr	₹200 Cr	₹207 Cr	+16.4%
EBITDA	₹12 Cr	₹15 Cr	₹17 Cr	₹19 Cr	+15.5%
EBITDA Margin	9.4%	7.5%	8.5%	9.2%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹4 Cr	₹6 Cr	₹6 Cr	₹7 Cr	+17.7%
EPS	₹2.38	₹3.51	₹3.44	—	—
ROE	10.0%	8.4%	7.6%	7.9%	—
ROCE	18.5%	12.7%	13.7%	15.1%	—
Total Debt	₹27 Cr	₹35 Cr	₹44 Cr	₹57 Cr	+28.0%
Free Cash Flow	-₹3 Cr	-₹16 Cr	-₹5 Cr	-₹10 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 16.4% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 15.5% a year over 3 years.

🟡 EBITDA Margin has held roughly flat at 9.2% over 3 years.

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 17.7% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 10.0% to 7.9% over 3 years (-2.2 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 18.5% to 15.1% over 3 years (-3.4 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 28.0% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹208 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹120 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹1 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹8 Cr

Capex

-₹2 Cr

Recent News

6 general

Crop Life Science Upper Circuit Today: Price, Data and Peers

Univest, 14 Oct

CropLife India raises alarm as decade-weak monsoon threatens sown acreage and pest attack

AgroSpectrum India, 15 Oct

Here's Why We Think Crop Life Science (NSE:CLSL) Is Well Worth Watching

Simply Wall Street, 16 Jul

GSP CROP SCIENCE LIMITED Share Price

Upstox, 16 Oct

Crop Life Science Ltd. Lower Circuit Today: Price, Data and Peers

Univest, 30 Sept

Crop Life Science promoters sell 4.8 lakh shares on NSE

scanx.trade, 04 Jul

Watch Items

Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.
Sector/industry classification unavailable — verify manually for peer comparison.
3 metrics couldn't be retrieved for this stock — this is more common for smaller or thinly-covered listings.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongGrowth

MiddlingFinancial Health · Valuation

WeakBusiness Quality · Profitability · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Unremarkable in both directions

A reasonable business at a reasonable price. Nothing here is alarming and nothing is compelling, which usually means the decision rests on things this data cannot see — the industry's direction, management's intent, and what else is available to you. 5 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

3 of 5 tripwires tripped — Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x; Free cash flow remains positive; Interest cover stays above 3x · see Key things to watch ↑