Vodafone Idea Limited

Communication Services — Telecom Services · NSE

₹12.59+₹0.07 (+0.56%)

DalalBaazaar Score

21 / 100

🔴 Weak

Verdict

HIGH RISK

Risk

High

Driven by negative shareholders' equity — the company owes more than it owns, short-term liabilities exceed short-term assets.

In simple words: The company owes more than it owns — years of losses have wiped out its net worth, with modest growth. Solvency — whether it can keep funding itself at all — is the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 6:59 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Vodafone Idea Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides telecommunication services to individuals, communities, and businesses in India.

IndustryTelecom Services

SectorCommunication Services

Employees9,500

Annual revenue₹44,789 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹44,789 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹77 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹44 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 9,500 employees supports ₹4.71 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹4.71 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are BHARTI AIRTEL 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?Some evidence

ROCE of 36.9% is above what capital typically costs, which suggests some pricing power, though not yet the sustained, wide gap that marks a durable advantage.

Peer median ROE20.2%

What is the outlook?

18 analysts covering the stock expect revenue to grow about 14.1% and earnings to grow about 19.9% in the year to 2028. These are estimates by people who follow the company, not a forecast for the wider industry.

Est. revenue growth+14.1%

Est. earnings growth+19.9%

Analysts18

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved +6% while net margin moved -211% 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+6%

Margin effect-211%

DalalBaazaar Score

21/ 100

Weak

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Shareholders' equity is negative — accumulated losses exceed the capital in the business

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

21/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

30/ 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

Multiples unreliable — equity base is negative

EV/EBITDA

16.7x

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from 39.4% to 43.6% over 3 years.
Debt is being paid down
Total debt is down 19% over 3 years.

🔴 What Needs Attention0

Nothing stands out as clearly deteriorating on the years of data available.

Red Flags

3 items require attention · 1 high · 2 watch

🔴Negative shareholders' equityFinancial
Liabilities exceed assets — accumulated losses have wiped out the company's net worth.
🟡Shareholders have been dilutedOwnership
Shares outstanding are up 123% over 3 years — each existing share owns a smaller slice of the company.
🟡Short-term liquidity is tightFinancial
Current ratio of 0.55 — near-term obligations exceed near-term assets.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from 39.4% to 43.6%. If that holds, profit compounds faster than sales and today's multiple looks cheaper in hindsight than it does now.
Deleveraging frees up earnings
Debt is down 19% 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?

Solvency comes before everything else
Liabilities exceed assets. Until net worth is rebuilt, the equity is a claim on a business that owes more than it owns, and further losses or a funding squeeze can leave shareholders with nothing.
The debt load needs earnings to hold up
Debt is 9.9x EBITDA. At that level a downturn in earnings turns a manageable balance sheet into a refinancing problem, and lenders get paid before shareholders.
Growth barely outpaces inflation
Revenue compounding at 2.1% a year is close to the rate prices rise, so the business is gaining little ground in real terms. That leaves the share price dependent on a re-rating rather than on earnings growth.
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.

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

1EBITDA margin holds above 42%✓ 43.6%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x✗ 9.9x
Already stretched, so this is a reduction target rather than a level to hold. Around 3x is where lenders typically start attaching conditions.
3Interest cover stays above 3x✗ 2.6x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.
4Revenue growth stays above 4% a year✗ 2.1% CAGR
Latest reported year was 6.1%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
5Free cash flow remains positive✓ ₹7,554 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.

Investment Checklist

7 / 11 checks passed

✗ Shareholders' equity is positive (assets exceed liabilities)
✓ Strong return on capital employed (ROCE ≥ 15%)
✓ Healthy net margin (≥ 10%)
✓ Generates positive free cash flow
✗ 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
✗ Analyst consensus isn't majority-sell
✗ Short-term technical trend isn't bearish

Price history

Quick Metrics

5 good · 4 neutral · 2 weak

Market Cap

₹1.36 L Cr

Large Cap

Large, widely-covered business — typically the steadiest of the bands

P/E (Trailing)

3.6x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

EPS (TTM)

₹3.45

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

Not meaningful

Negative equity

Return on equity can't be read when equity itself is negative

ROCE

36.9%

Distorted

Distorted by the negative net worth — read this alongside the solvency flag, not on its own

Debt/Equity

Not meaningful

Negative equity

Shareholders' equity is negative, so this ratio can't be read

Revenue Growth (YoY)

6.1%

Modest

Modest growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

226.2%

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

₹7,554 Cr

Cash generative

Generates cash even after funding its capex

More Metrics

P/E (Forward)

-8.7x

Improving

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

Operating Margin

-3.8%

Weak

Thin margins leave little room for error

Net Margin

82.3%

Good

Strong bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

0.55

Tight

Tight short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.74

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

58%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

13.3 / 13.9

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

28.0

Oversold zone

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹42,143 Cr	₹42,573 Cr	₹43,456 Cr	₹44,789 Cr	+2.1%
EBITDA	₹16,587 Cr	₹17,150 Cr	₹18,974 Cr	₹19,523 Cr	+5.6%
EBITDA Margin	39.4%	40.3%	43.7%	43.6%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	-₹29,301 Cr	-₹31,238 Cr	-₹27,384 Cr	₹34,552 Cr	—
EPS	₹-8.43	₹-6.41	₹-4.01	₹3.21	—
ROCE	-4.4%	-3.7%	-2.1%	36.9%	—
Total Debt	₹2.38 L Cr	₹2.44 L Cr	₹2.33 L Cr	₹1.93 L Cr	-6.8%
Free Cash Flow	₹13,247 Cr	₹19,212 Cr	-₹1,806 Cr	₹7,554 Cr	-17.1%

🟢 Revenue has grown at 2.1% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 5.6% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from 39.4% to 43.6% over 3 years (+4.2 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has turned positive, from -₹29,301 Cr to ₹34,552 Cr.

🟢 EPS has turned positive, from ₹-8.43 to ₹3.21.

🟢 ROCE has risen from -4.4% to 36.9% over 3 years (+41.3 pts).

🟢 Total Debt has shrunk at 6.8% a year over 3 years.

🔴 Free Cash Flow has shrunk at 17.1% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹1.92 L Cr

Total Liabilities

₹2.27 L Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹2,106 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹18,473 Cr

Capex

-₹10,919 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

10.0%

Insider Holding

74.6%

Corporate Actions

Next Earnings

13 Nov 2026

Ex-Dividend Date

22 Sept 2016

Analyst Consensus

Recommendations

4 Buy · 9 Hold · 9 Sell

Target Price (Mean)

₹12.23

-2.8% vs CMP

Target Range

₹5.5 – ₹20

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED	39.8x	20.2%

Recent News

4 mixed2 general

Vodafone Idea Share Price News After Intraday Price Fall

Univest, 12 OctPrice move

🟡Mixed / dependsA price move rather than a change in the business. If the figures on this page have not moved, the fall is either an opportunity or news they have yet to catch up with.

Vodafone Idea shares jump over 120% in one year. Should you buy now or avoid the multibagger?

The Economic Times, 28 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.

Reliance Jio IPO a win-win for telecom stocks! RIL, Airtel and Vodafone Idea shares rise up to 3.6%- What should you do?

Livemint, 15 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.

Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel: Q2 results preview, share price targets

Business Today, 05 OctResults

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

Vodafone Idea soars 4% on heavy volumes in weak market; hits 25 month high

Business Standard, 07 Sept

Vodafone Idea Share Price: 5 Key Factors Driving Stock Movement

Analytics Insight, 14 Oct

Watch Items

Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.
1 metric couldn't be retrieved for this stock — this is more common for smaller or thinly-covered listings.
RSI is in oversold territory — could mean either a bargain or a stock still falling for good reason. Check the 'why' before assuming reversal.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

WeakBusiness Quality · Financial Health · Growth · Profitability · Valuation · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Avoid until solvency is resolved

Vodafone Idea Limited owes more than it owns. Whatever the operating numbers show, the equity is a residual claim on a business with negative net worth, and that question has to be settled before any of the rest is worth weighing. 1 high-severity red flag sits above this conclusion and should be read first.

3 of 5 tripwires tripped — Debt / EBITDA falls below 3x; Interest cover stays above 3x; Revenue growth stays above 4% a year · see Key things to watch ↑