Kopran Limited

Healthcare — Drug Manufacturers - General · NSE

₹273.50−₹0.40 (−0.15%)

DalalBaazaar Score

38 / 100

🔴 Weak

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

High

Driven by negative free cash flow, micro-cap size, which brings thin liquidity, a very high earnings multiple, which leaves little margin for disappointment.

In simple words: The business is earning a fairly low return on the money invested in it, though profits are falling even as sales grow. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:02 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Kopran Limited, an integrated pharmaceutical company, engages in the development, manufacture and marketing of active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished dosage forms in India and internationally.

IndustryDrug Manufacturers - General

SectorHealthcare

Employees1,156

Annual revenue₹676 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹676 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹4 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹9 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 1,156 employees supports ₹58.5 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹58.5 lakh

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 7.7% 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?

Sales and margins have both contributed to where profit is now. Over 3 years revenue moved +23% while net margin moved -23% 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+23%

Margin effect-23%

DalalBaazaar Score

38/ 100

Weak

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Revenue CAGR of only 7.2% — barely ahead of inflation
✗ Profit has declined at 1.9% a year
✗ Profit is compounding slower than revenue — margins are being squeezed as the business grows
✗ Profit fell 9.7% in the latest year

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

39/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

29/ 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.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

52.4x

3Y Median

25.8x

40 monthly readings · mean 30.1x · range 13.5x–52.2x

Sector Median

33.3x

median of 4 sector peers

⚠️Current valuation is approximately 103% above its 3y median of 25.8x. Paying more than usual needs a reason — faster growth, a better balance sheet, or a re-rating you believe in.

⚠️Against its sector it trades 57% above the peer median of 33.3x.

vs. its own history

Expensive

25.8x median over 40 months · +103%

vs. sector peers

Expensive

33.3x median of 4 peers · +57%

vs. generic bands

Expensive

Above 35x

EV/EBITDA

24.1x

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well2

Very low debt
Debt/Equity of 0.29x leaves the balance sheet with plenty of headroom.
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

4 items require attention · 2 high · 2 watch

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 103% over 3 years, from ₹75 Cr to ₹153 Cr.
🔴Free cash flow negative for 4 yearsFinancial
The business has not covered its capital spending from operations for several years running, which has to be funded externally.
🟡Interest coverage is deterioratingFinancial
Cover has fallen from 7.7x to 4.9x.
🟡Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 62% against revenue up 23% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

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?

Sales are being booked faster than collected
Receivables are up 62% against revenue up 23%. If customers keep taking longer to pay, reported profit will not turn into cash — and write-offs follow if some never do.
The price already assumes success
The stock trades 103% above its own median multiple. At this level the business has to deliver just to stand still, and a stumble is repriced twice — lower earnings on a lower multiple.
Growth barely outpaces inflation
Revenue compounding at 7.2% 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.
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
2 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

1EBITDA margin holds above 7%✓ 9.1%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✗ 2.5x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
3Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹0 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Revenue growth stays above 5% a year✓ 7.2% CAGR
Latest reported year was 13.9%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
5ROCE stays above 8%✗ 7.7%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

5 / 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

3 good · 3 neutral · 5 weak

Market Cap

₹1,322 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

52.4x

Expensive

Expensive — verify against sector peers

P/B Ratio

2.49x

Fair

Moderate premium to the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹5.22

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

4.9%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

7.7%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

0.29x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

13.9%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

-9.7%

Falling

Profits are shrinking

Dividend Yield

1.10%

Modest

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

Free Cash Flow

-₹0 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

P/E (Forward)

48.2x

Improving

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

Operating Margin

6.5%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

3.6%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

1.51

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.89

Market-like

Moves roughly in line with the market

52W Range Position

88%

Near high

Near its 52-week high

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

273.8 / 236.3

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

44.8

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹548 Cr	₹615 Cr	₹624 Cr	₹676 Cr	+7.2%
EBITDA	₹53 Cr	₹89 Cr	₹74 Cr	₹61 Cr	+4.8%
EBITDA Margin	9.7%	14.5%	11.9%	9.1%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹27 Cr	₹51 Cr	₹39 Cr	₹26 Cr	-1.9%
EPS	₹5.65	₹10.55	₹7.99	₹5.33	-1.9%
ROE	6.2%	10.4%	7.4%	4.9%	—
ROCE	8.6%	14.1%	10.7%	7.7%	—
Total Debt	₹75 Cr	₹99 Cr	₹148 Cr	₹153 Cr	+26.6%
Free Cash Flow	-₹27 Cr	-₹13 Cr	-₹17 Cr	-₹0 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 7.2% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 4.8% a year over 3 years.

🟡 EBITDA Margin has held roughly flat at 9.1% over 3 years.

🟡 PAT (Net Profit) has been broadly flat over 3 years (-1.9% a year).

🟡 EPS has been broadly flat over 3 years (-1.9% a year).

🔴 ROE has fallen from 6.2% to 4.9% over 3 years (-1.3 pts).

🟡 ROCE has held roughly flat at 7.7% over 3 years.

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 26.6% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹908 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹378 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹1 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹67 Cr

Capex

-₹67 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.2%

Insider Holding

46.5%

Corporate Actions

Dividend Rate

₹3

Ex-Dividend Date

11 Aug 2026

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

2 mixed4 general

Kopran Share Price Target 2027 to 2030: Analyst Outlook

Univest, 18 AugAnalyst view

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

Kopran soars 10%, rallies 154% in FY27 so far; what's driving pharma stock?

Business Standard, 16 Sept

United Shippers sells 12 lakh Kopran shares in open market deal

scanx.trade, 08 Sept

Kopran Share Price Falls 8.55%: Price Action

Univest, 08 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.

Kopran - Anlon Healthcare among 7 healthcare stocks hitting 52-week highs; rallied up to 105% in a month

The Economic Times, 23 Sept

We Think Kopran (NSE:KOPRAN) Is Taking Some Risk With Its Debt

Simply Wall Street, 06 Feb

Watch Items

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

DalalBaazaar Thesis

MiddlingFinancial Health

WeakBusiness Quality · Growth · Profitability · Valuation · 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. 2 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

3 of 5 tripwires tripped — Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x; Free cash flow remains positive; ROCE stays above 8% · see Key things to watch ↑