HMA Agro Industries Limited

Consumer Defensive — Packaged Foods · NSE

₹25.12+₹0.19 (+0.76%)

DalalBaazaar Score

58 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

NEUTRAL

Risk

High

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

In simple words: Strong business and financial position, with both sales and profits growing well. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 6:10 pm

Mixed / neutral. No major red flags jump out, but nothing here screams "obviously cheap" either. This is a name that needs a peer comparison and a view on near-term earnings triggers before sizing a position.

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

HMA Agro Industries Limited manufactures and exports frozen buffalo meat and related products. It offers frozen fish seafood, rice, pet food, by-product, and leather, as well as fruits and vegetables.

IndustryPackaged Foods

SectorConsumer Defensive

Employees338

Annual revenue₹6,916 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹6,916 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹2 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹5 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 338 employees supports ₹20.46 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

EBITDA margin4.7%

Net margin2.4%

Revenue / employee₹20.46 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are NESTLE INDIA LIMITED, BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTD, TATA CONSUMER PRODUCT LTD, DABUR INDIA LTD. These are the companies its valuation and returns are measured against elsewhere in this report.

NESTLE INDIA LIMITEDP/E 59.8x · ROE 79.9%

BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTDP/E 44.1x · ROE 51.0%

TATA CONSUMER PRODUCT LTDP/E 59.3x · ROE 7.5%

DABUR INDIA LTDP/E 34.7x · ROE 17.2%

What is its competitive advantage?The numbers suggest a real one

ROCE has stayed above 15% in every year available and stands at 26.0%. Returns that high normally get competed away; when they persist, something is protecting them, and its ROE of 17.5% against a peer median of 51.0% is consistent with that. What that something is — brand, scale, switching costs, regulation — the accounts cannot tell you.

ROCE26.0%

ROE17.5%

Peer median ROE51.0%

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 +116% while net margin moved -37% 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+116%

Margin effect-37%

DalalBaazaar Score

58/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✓ Beta of 0.40 — historically steadier than the index
✗ Micro Cap: thinner liquidity and sharper drawdowns are normal
✗ Negative free cash flow means dependence on external funding

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

54/ 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.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

5.9x

3Y Median

17.7x

40 monthly readings · mean 18.9x · range 6.4x–34.9x

Sector Median

51.7x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 67% below its 3y median of 17.7x. Cheaper than its own history, which is worth a reason too: the market may be pricing in something the backward-looking numbers do not show.

🟢Against its sector it trades 89% below the peer median of 51.7x.

vs. its own history

Cheap

17.7x median over 40 months · -67%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

51.7x median of 4 peers · -89%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

P/E (Trailing)

5.9x

P/B

1.33x

EV/EBITDA

6.0x

PEG

0.53

Dividend Yield

1.19%

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well3

High return on capital employed
ROCE of 26.0% is the mark of a business that converts capital into profit efficiently.
Valuation below its historical average
At 5.9x the stock trades 67% below its own median of 17.7x.
Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention6

Margins are compressing
EBITDA margin has slipped from 6.6% to 4.7% over 3 years.
Debt is rising
Total debt is up 148% over 3 years — worth checking what it funded.
Free cash flow is negative
The business is not currently covering its capital spending from operations.
Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from 25.4% to 17.5% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from 34.2% to 26.0% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.
Inventory building faster than sales
Inventory is up 935% against revenue growth of 116% — stock may not be moving.

Red Flags

4 items require attention · 3 high · 1 watch

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 148% over 3 years, from ₹343 Cr to ₹850 Cr.
🔴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.
🔴Inventory building faster than salesFinancial
Inventory up 935% against revenue up 116% — stock may not be moving.
🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹120 Cr in the latest year.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Capital compounds at a high rate
ROCE of 26.0% means each rupee reinvested earns well above what capital costs. If the company can keep deploying at this rate, growth creates value rather than just consuming cash.
Priced below its own history
The stock trades 67% below its own median multiple. If the business performs as it has and simply re-rates back to normal, that gap is return on its own.
Cheaper than its peers
It trades 89% 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?

Margins are being competed away
EBITDA margin has fallen from 6.6% to 4.7%. If the trend continues, profit falls even on flat sales — and margin decline rarely reverses quickly.
Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from 25.4% to 17.5%. 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.
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 22% a year✓ 29.2% CAGR
Latest reported year was 86.1%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 3%✓ 4.7%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✗ 2.6x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
4Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹120 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
5ROCE stays above 23%✓ 26.0%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

9 / 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

7 good · 3 neutral · 1 weak

Market Cap

₹1,258 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

5.9x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

1.33x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹4.28

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

17.5%

Strong

Strong capital efficiency

ROCE

26.0%

Strong

Earns comfortably above its likely cost of capital

Debt/Equity

0.88x

Moderate

Moderate leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

86.1%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

4950.0%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

1.19%

Modest

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

Free Cash Flow

-₹120 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

CMP

₹25.12

Operating Margin

0.1%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

2.7%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

1.26

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.40

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

40%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

24.1 / 22.6

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

58.4

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹3,209 Cr	₹4,813 Cr	₹5,133 Cr	₹6,916 Cr	+29.2%
EBITDA	₹211 Cr	₹175 Cr	₹183 Cr	₹328 Cr	+15.8%
EBITDA Margin	6.6%	3.6%	3.6%	4.7%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹120 Cr	₹101 Cr	₹87 Cr	₹165 Cr	+11.0%
EPS	₹2.4	₹2.03	₹1.75	₹3.29	+11.0%
ROE	25.4%	14.0%	11.0%	17.5%	—
ROCE	34.2%	19.0%	17.7%	26.0%	—
Total Debt	₹343 Cr	₹492 Cr	₹535 Cr	₹850 Cr	+35.3%
Free Cash Flow	₹26 Cr	-₹204 Cr	₹103 Cr	-₹120 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 29.2% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 15.8% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from 6.6% to 4.7% over 3 years (-1.8 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 11.0% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EPS has grown at 11.0% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 25.4% to 17.5% over 3 years (-7.9 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from 34.2% to 26.0% over 3 years (-8.2 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 35.3% a year over 3 years.

🔴 Free Cash Flow has turned negative, from ₹26 Cr to -₹120 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹2,413 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹1,450 Cr

Total Debt

₹850 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹136 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹85 Cr

Capex

-₹36 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

79.3%

Corporate Actions

Dividend Rate

₹0.3

Ex-Dividend Date

22 Aug 2025

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
NESTLE INDIA LIMITED	59.8x	79.9%
BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTD	44.1x	51.0%
TATA CONSUMER PRODUCT LTD	59.3x	7.5%
DABUR INDIA LTD	34.7x	17.2%

Recent News

2 mixed4 general

HMA Agro Industries submits application for promoter reclassification

scanx.trade, 15 Oct

HMA Agro Industries Ltd. Share Price Rise: Price Analysis

Univest, 14 AugPrice 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.

Shareholders May Not Overlook HMA Agro Industries Insiders Selling ₹85m In Stock

Simply Wall Street, 07 Apr

Small-cap stock under ₹50 jumps 3% despite sell-off pressure on Dalal Street

Livemint, 12 Feb

HMA Agro Industries Ltd Shareholding Pattern – Promoters, FIIs & DIIs

Value Research, 31 Aug

HMA Agro Industries Share Price Jumps 5% Ahead Of Q3 Results | Stock Market Today

Samco, 11 FebPrice 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.

Watch Items

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

DalalBaazaar Thesis

🟡Business QualityAdequate9.6/20

🟡Financial HealthAdequate11/20

🟡GrowthModest12.9/20

🟡ProfitabilityModerate7.3/15

🟢ValuationAttractive13.2/15

🔴RiskHigh4.4/10

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. 3 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

This thesis breaks if

✓Revenue growth stays above 22% a year29.2% CAGR
✓EBITDA margin holds above 3%4.7%
✗Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x2.6x
✗Free cash flow remains positive-₹120 Cr
✓ROCE stays above 23%26.0%