Competent Automobiles Company Limited

Consumer Cyclical — Auto & Truck Dealerships · NSE

₹371.95₹0.00 (0.00%)

DalalBaazaar Score

50 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

NEUTRAL

Risk

Moderate

Driven by moderate debt load, 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 both sales and profits growing well. Thin profit margins are 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 Competent Automobiles Company Limited — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

Competent Automobiles Company Limited engages in trading and servicing Maruti Suzuki vehicles in India. It operates through two segments, Showroom; and Services & Spares.

IndustryAuto & Truck Dealerships

SectorConsumer Cyclical

Employees2,739

Annual revenue₹2,432 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹2,432 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹1 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹4 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 2,739 employees supports ₹88.8 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹88.8 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LTD., TITAN COMPANY LIMITED, TRENT LTD, AVENUE SUPERMARTS LIMITED. 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 12.8% 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 ROE25.9%

What has been driving growth?

Sales and margins have both contributed to where profit is now. Over 3 years revenue moved +41% while net margin moved -41% 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+41%

Margin effect-41%

DalalBaazaar Score

50/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ ROE of 5.3% is weak

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

41/ 100

Weak

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.

Optically cheap, but the underlying business scores poorly. Cheap-and-weak is what a value trap looks like from the outside — the low price may be deserved.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

9.6x

Sector Median

69.2x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Against its sector it trades 86% below the peer median of 69.2x.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Cheap

69.2x median of 4 peers · -86%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

EV/EBITDA

6.2x

PEG

0.23

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Cash flow has turned positive
Free cash flow moved from negative to positive over 3 years.
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

3 items require attention · 3 high

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 84% over 3 years, from ₹229 Cr to ₹422 Cr.
🔴Thin interest coverageFinancial
Operating profit covers interest only 1.9x — little room if earnings dip.
🔴Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 110% against revenue up 41% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Cheaper than its peers
It trades 86% below the sector median. Either the market sees a problem the numbers do not show, or the discount closes.
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?

The debt load needs earnings to hold up
Debt is 4.3x EBITDA. At that level a downturn in earnings turns a manageable balance sheet into a refinancing problem, and lenders get paid before shareholders.
Sales are being booked faster than collected
Receivables are up 110% against revenue up 41%. 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
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

1Revenue growth stays above 9% a year✓ 12.0% CAGR
Latest reported year was 47.8%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 2%✓ 4.0%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x✗ 4.3x
Already stretched, so this is a reduction target rather than a level to hold. Around 3x is where lenders typically start attaching conditions.
4Interest cover stays above 3x✗ 1.9x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.
5Free cash flow remains positive✓ ₹59 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.

Investment Checklist

6 / 10 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

Price history

Quick Metrics

6 good · 4 neutral · 1 weak

Market Cap

₹229 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

9.6x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

0.43x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹38.59

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

5.3%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

12.8%

Moderate

Moderate return on the capital in the business

Debt/Equity

1.09x

Moderate

Moderate leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

47.8%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

41.5%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

0.27%

Modest

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

Free Cash Flow

₹59 Cr

Cash generative

Generates cash even after funding its capex

More Metrics

Operating Margin

1.9%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

0.8%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

1.15

Adequate

Adequate, but no real cushion

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.31

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

53%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

RSI (14)

53.0

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹1,730 Cr	₹2,116 Cr	₹2,138 Cr	₹2,432 Cr	+12.0%
EBITDA	₹69 Cr	₹87 Cr	₹89 Cr	₹98 Cr	+12.6%
EBITDA Margin	4.0%	4.1%	4.2%	4.0%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹25 Cr	₹28 Cr	₹21 Cr	₹21 Cr	-6.0%
EPS	₹40.24	₹45.6	₹34.98	—	—
ROE	8.0%	8.0%	5.9%	5.3%	—
ROCE	13.9%	15.3%	13.5%	12.8%	—
Total Debt	₹229 Cr	₹323 Cr	₹408 Cr	₹422 Cr	+22.6%
Free Cash Flow	-₹9 Cr	-₹90 Cr	₹5 Cr	₹59 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 12.0% a year over 3 years.

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

🟡 EBITDA Margin has held roughly flat at 4.0% over 3 years.

🔴 PAT (Net Profit) has shrunk at 6.0% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 8.0% to 5.3% over 3 years (-2.6 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 13.9% to 12.8% over 3 years (-1.1 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 22.6% a year over 3 years.

🟢 Free Cash Flow has turned positive, from -₹9 Cr to ₹59 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹859 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹472 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹48 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹80 Cr

Capex

-₹22 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

80.2%

Corporate Actions

Dividend Rate

₹1

Ex-Dividend Date

11 Sept 2026

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LTD.	25.2x	13.4%
TITAN COMPANY LIMITED	68.5x	36.7%
TRENT LTD	87.2x	25.9%
AVENUE SUPERMARTS LIMITED	69.9x	12.7%

Recent News

1 mixed5 general

Competent Automobiles (NSE: COMPEAU): Q1 Sales Outpace Margins

Kalkine India, 06 OctResults

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

Landmark Cars vs Popular Vehicles and Services vs Competent Automobiles: Which Stock Should You Track

Univest, 24 Sept

Competent Automobiles Company Ltd. Shareholding Pattern – Promoters, FIIs & DIIs

Value Research, 29 Aug

Competent Automobiles Co. Ltd. (NSE: COMPEAU) Falls 5.47% as Stock Movement Draws Market Attention

Kalkine India, 21 Sept

Competent Automobiles Company Ltd. Financials – Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss, Cash Flow

Value Research, 30 Aug

Competent Automobiles Co. Ltd accepts Whole Time Director resignation

scanx.trade, 14 Jul

Watch Items

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

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongValuation

MiddlingBusiness Quality · Financial Health · Risk

WeakGrowth · Profitability

Points for each in the Score ↑

Cheap, but for a reason

The low price is the whole case here, and the business underneath scores poorly. Cheap-and-weak is what a value trap looks like from the outside — it needs a specific reason the numbers are about to improve, not just the observation that they are low. 3 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

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