DCB Bank Limited

Financial Services — Banks - Regional · NSE

₹210.16−₹0.63 (−0.30%)

DalalBaazaar Score

78 / 100

🟢 Good

Verdict

ATTRACTIVE

Risk

Low

Driven by small-cap size, which brings sharper price swings.

In simple words: Reasonable but unspectacular business quality, with both sales and profits growing well. Nothing obvious stands out as stretched — the usual checks on business quality and management still apply.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:03 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

DCB Bank Limited engages in the provision of various banking and financial products and services in India. It operates through Treasury Operations, Corporate/Wholesale Banking, Retail Banking, and Other Banking Operations segments.

IndustryBanks - Regional

SectorFinancial Services

Employees11,337

Annual revenue₹3,311 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹3,311 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹22 reaches shareholders as profit. Each of its 11,337 employees supports ₹29.2 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹29.2 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are HDFC BANK LTD, ICICI BANK LTD., KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK LTD, AXIS BANK 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?Not assessable from these ratios

For a lender, returns on capital are shaped by leverage and funding cost rather than by pricing power, so the usual financial signature of an advantage does not apply. Judge this one on deposit franchise, cost of funds and asset quality — none of which are in this data.

Peer median ROE13.8%

What is the outlook?

17 analysts covering the stock expect revenue to grow about 18.2% and earnings to grow about 20.7% in the year to 2028. These are estimates by people who follow the company, not a forecast for the wider industry.

Est. revenue growth+18.2%

Est. earnings growth+20.7%

Analysts17

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 +56% while net margin moved +1% 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+56%

Margin effect+1%

DalalBaazaar Score

78/ 100

Good

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

• Shareholders fund 7.4% of the balance sheet, which is within the normal range for a bank
• Capital adequacy, gross NPAs and provision coverage decide a lender's financial health, and none are available here — check the bank's own quarterly disclosure

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

80/ 100

Excellent

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

Valuation

80/ 100

Cheap

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

A good business currently available at an undemanding price — the combination this framework is built to look for.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

8.6x

3Y Median

8.5x

40 monthly readings · mean 8.3x · range 6.1x–10.2x

Sector Median

17.0x

median of 4 sector peers

🟡Currently trading close to its 3y median of 8.5x — the market is paying about what it usually pays for this company.

🟢Against its sector it trades 49% below the peer median of 17.0x.

vs. its own history

Fair

8.5x median over 40 months · +1%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

17.0x median of 4 peers · -49%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

EV/EBITDA

—

PEG

0.53

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

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

No automated checks triggered

None of the automated financial checks below were triggered on the years of data available. That is not the same as a clean bill of health — see what could not be checked.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Cheaper than its peers
It trades 49% 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?

Size brings its own risk
Small 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.

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

1Revenue growth stays above 12% a year✓ 15.9% CAGR
Latest reported year was 17.4%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2Return on equity stays above 9%✓ 11.2%
For a lender this is the cleanest single read on whether the book is being grown profitably.
3Valuation vs its own median of 8.5x✓ 8.6x today
A re-rating above its own history needs a reason; without one it is just a higher price.

Investment Checklist

9 / 10 checks passed

✗ Strong return on equity (ROE ≥ 15%)
✓ Healthy net margin (≥ 10%)
✓ Generates positive free cash flow
✓ Manageable leverage (Debt/Equity < 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

6 good · 5 neutral · 0 weak

Market Cap

₹6,771 Cr

Small Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

8.6x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

1.04x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹24.46

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

11.2%

Moderate

Moderate capital efficiency

ROCE

Not meaningful

N/A for lenders

Banks and NBFCs don't report capital employed the way other businesses do

Debt/Equity

0.85x

Moderate

Moderate leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

17.4%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

32.4%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

0.69%

Modest

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

Free Cash Flow

₹6,549 Cr

Cash generative

Generates cash even after funding its capex

More Metrics

P/E (Forward)

6.1x

Improving

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

Operating Margin

34.9%

Good

Healthy core-business profitability

Net Margin

25.3%

Good

Strong bottom-line conversion

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.48

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

74%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

208.8 / 207.7

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

45.8

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹2,127 Cr	₹2,400 Cr	₹2,848 Cr	₹3,311 Cr	+15.9%
PAT (Net Profit)	₹466 Cr	₹536 Cr	₹615 Cr	₹732 Cr	+16.3%
EPS	₹14.79	₹16.99	₹19.49	₹22.82	+15.6%
ROE	10.2%	10.6%	10.8%	11.2%	—
Total Debt	₹4,018 Cr	₹5,343 Cr	₹7,400 Cr	₹5,586 Cr	+11.6%
Free Cash Flow	-₹1,732 Cr	₹350 Cr	-₹577 Cr	₹6,549 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 15.9% a year over 3 years.

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 16.3% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EPS has grown at 15.6% a year over 3 years.

🟡 ROE has held roughly flat at 11.2% over 3 years.

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 11.6% a year over 3 years.

🟢 Free Cash Flow has turned positive, from -₹1,732 Cr to ₹6,549 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹88,069 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹81,534 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹4,656 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹6,640 Cr

Capex

-₹90 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

36.4%

Insider Holding

20.0%

Corporate Actions

Dividend Rate

₹1.45

Ex-Dividend Date

12 Jun 2026

Analyst Consensus

Recommendations

16 Buy · 0 Hold · 1 Sell

Target Price (Mean)

₹233.53

+11.1% vs CMP

Target Range

₹195 – ₹298

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
HDFC BANK LTD	15.9x	13.8%
ICICI BANK LTD.	18.1x	16.5%
KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK LTD	21.9x	11.2%
AXIS BANK LIMITED	14.5x	13.4%

Recent News

4 mixed2 general

DCB Bank (BSE:532772) Stock Forecast & Analyst Predictions

Simply Wall Street, 08 OctAnalyst view

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

DCB Bank Ltd. Share Price Rise Streak: Price and Valuation

Univest, 12 OctPrice move

🟡Mixed / dependsA price move, which is not by itself a change in the business. Worth finding the cause before reading it as either good or bad.

DCB Bank soars 10% on huge volume, nears 52-week high post Q1 results

Business Standard, 27 JulResults

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

DCB Bank share price jumps 8% on strong Q1 performance

Moneycontrol.com, 27 JulPrice move

🟡Mixed / dependsA price move, which is not by itself a change in the business. Worth finding the cause before reading it as either good or bad.

Missed DCB Bank's Rally? Here's The Bet Holders Made

Simply Wall Street, 16 Oct

Market Trading Guide: Astra Microwave, Manappuram among 5 stock recommendations for Tuesday

The Economic Times, 12 Oct

Watch Items

This is a financial-sector business: borrowing is its raw material, not leverage in the usual sense. Debt/Equity and ROCE here aren't comparable to a manufacturer's — read them alongside NIM, GNPA and capital adequacy from the company's own disclosures.
Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongBusiness Quality · Growth · Profitability · Valuation · Risk

MiddlingFinancial Health

Points for each in the Score ↑

Attractive on both counts

A good business currently available at an undemanding price — the combination this framework exists to look for. The work left is qualitative: whether the advantage the numbers imply is one you can identify and expect to last.

All 3 tripwires holding · see Key things to watch ↑