Decipher Labs Limited

Healthcare — Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic · BSE

₹5.52+₹0.02 (+0.36%)

DalalBaazaar Score

32 / 100

🔴 Weak

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

Very High

Driven by high debt relative to equity, negative free cash flow, the company is currently loss-making.

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, 6:56 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Decipher Labs Limited, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, sells, and trades in pharmaceutical drugs in India and internationally. It operates through two segments, Manufacturing and Trading of Pharmaceutical Drugs and Consultancy.

IndustryDrug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic

SectorHealthcare

Employees1

Annual revenue₹14 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹14 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹-22 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹-17 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 1 employees supports ₹14.05 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹14.05 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are SUN PHARMACEUTICAL IND L, DR. REDDY S LABORATORIES, CIPLA LTD, DIVI S LABORATORIES 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 -15.6% 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 ROE14.5%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved -69% while net margin moved +273% 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-69%

Margin effect+273%

DalalBaazaar Score

32/ 100

Weak

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Revenue has contracted at 32.4% a year

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

29/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

36/ 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 Well1

Debt is being paid down
Total debt is down 47% over 3 years.

🔴 What Needs Attention1

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from -11.6% to -14.9% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.

Red Flags

4 items require attention · 3 high · 1 watch

🔴High leverageFinancial
Debt/Equity of 2.44x — earnings must service borrowings before shareholders see anything.
🔴The company is lossmakingFinancial
Net profit of -₹3 Cr in the latest reported year.
🔴Significant margin compressionFinancial
EBITDA margin has fallen 28.4 points, from 11.2% to -17.2%.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹3 Cr in the latest year.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Deleveraging frees up earnings
Debt is down 47% over 3 years. Every rupee of interest not paid drops to the bottom line, so profit can grow even if revenue does not.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Margins are being competed away
EBITDA margin has fallen from 11.2% to -17.2%. If the trend continues, profit falls even on flat sales — and margin decline rarely reverses quickly.
Leverage amplifies any setback
Debt/Equity of 2.44x. Interest is payable whether or not the business has a good year.
Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from -11.6% to -14.9%. Each rupee of equity earns less than it did, so profit growth increasingly depends on raising more capital rather than on the existing base working harder.
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.

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

1EBITDA margin holds above -19%✓ -17.2%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹3 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
3ROCE stays above 8%✗ -15.6%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

4 / 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

2 good · 2 neutral · 7 weak

Market Cap

₹6 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

0.27x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹-3.02

Loss-making

Negative earnings per share — the business is losing money

ROE

-14.9%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

-15.6%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

2.44x

High

High leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

-14.4%

Shrinking

Sales are contracting

Profit Growth (YoY)

39.3%

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

-₹3 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

-87.0%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

-13.3%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

5.22

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.82

Market-like

Moves roughly in line with the market

52W Range Position

11%

Near low

Near its 52-week low

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

5.8 / 5.9

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

42.8

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹46 Cr	₹36 Cr	₹23 Cr	₹14 Cr	-32.4%
EBITDA	₹5 Cr	₹1 Cr	-₹0 Cr	-₹2 Cr	—
EBITDA Margin	11.2%	1.5%	-1.7%	-17.2%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	-₹3 Cr	-₹2 Cr	-₹5 Cr	-₹3 Cr	—
EPS	₹-2.66	₹-1.66	₹-5.03	₹-3.05	—
ROE	-11.6%	-7.7%	-22.2%	-14.9%	—
ROCE	-16.1%	-4.5%	-27.9%	-15.6%	—
Total Debt	₹1 Cr	—	₹0 Cr	₹1 Cr	-19.1%
Free Cash Flow	-₹2 Cr	₹5 Cr	-₹10 Cr	-₹3 Cr	—

🔴 Revenue has shrunk at 32.4% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA has turned negative, from ₹5 Cr to -₹2 Cr.

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from 11.2% to -17.2% over 3 years (-28.4 pts).

🔴 ROE has fallen from -11.6% to -14.9% over 3 years (-3.4 pts).

🟡 ROCE has held roughly flat at -15.6% over 3 years.

🟢 Total Debt has shrunk at 19.1% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹24 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹4 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹1 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹2 Cr

Capex

-₹0 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

27.4%

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
SUN PHARMACEUTICAL IND L	34.9x	14.5%
DR. REDDY S LABORATORIES	31.0x	8.8%
CIPLA LTD	31.8x	9.8%
DIVI S LABORATORIES LTD	83.0x	17.5%

Recent News

6 general

DECIPHER LABS LIMITED Share Price

Upstox, 09 Oct

HESTER BIOSCIENCES Stock/Share price , NSE/BSE Forecast News and Live Quotes

Equitymaster, 17 Oct

Decipher Labs passes all five resolutions at 40th annual general meeting

scanx.trade, 30 Sept

Decipher Labs Ltd. Shareholding Pattern – Promoters, FIIs & DIIs

Value Research, 27 Aug

ADVANCED ENZYME TECHNOLOGIES Stock/Share price , NSE/BSE Forecast News and Live Quotes

Equitymaster, 15 Oct

Decipher Labs sets book closure for AGM from September 24 to 30

scanx.trade, 08 Sept

Watch Items

Revenue growth is negative (-14.4%) 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

MiddlingFinancial Health · Valuation

WeakBusiness Quality · Growth · Profitability · 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.

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